as time goes by
by Sharry93
Summary: After two long years the crew is finally reunites, but before they can share all their stories, Zoro's past is catching up with him. A past making even the fearless swordsman tremble in pure angst, but instead of turning to his crew, he sends them to nobody else but Silvers Rayleigh. What is Zoro hiding? Can the strawhats save him? And what does the dark king have to do with it?
1. Prologue

This story has haunted me for years, so last year NaNoWriMo I decided to just write it down. It's one of my favorite stories I ever wrote, although it's far from perfect.  
This year I sadly can't participate so I decided to give it a revival by translating it into English.  
As you may know I'm not a native speaker, so I appreciate all kinds of concrit and comments.

Enjoy! ;-)

P.S.: I finally made my own tumblr, in case you want to chat with me or ask some questions you don't wanna ask here. I will regulary update little previews and hints about the stuff I'm working on, so come by and say hi^^

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Prologue

"He'll be here soon," she noted with a small smile while placing the beer mug right in in front of him, "but of course you already know that."

Walking past him her hand traced along his jawline. He nodded without saying a single word and reached for his drink. Of course, he knew that the other one would arrive soon; an aura he would never forget, no matter how much time would pass.

But it hadn't even been so much time. Just two years ago he had recognized that aura for the first time after so many years, when the other one had come closer and closer to the Sabaody Archipelago.

Even now he could recall how nervous he had been, how excited he had been. It had been tough; waiting, caught between excitement and fear. Every mile the other one had come closer, it had become harder to think straight or to think at all. He didn't want to remember how much money he had lost through gambling the last twenty-four hours before the other one had arrived. He even had to sell himself to the slave traders – about three time actually – to pay off his debts. Even the alcohol had betrayed him, not being able to knock him out, so he could have forgotten at least for a few seconds, just like now.

He put down the empty mug, his thumb following the lines of a few water drops.

It almost felt like yesterday, when an unexpected riot had shaken the auction house and he had just known that the other one had been part of it. The first time they had faced each other after such a long time he had expected something, anything; he didn't know exactly what he had expected, but at least something, maybe a wink, maybe half a grin or a stone-cold glare.

But the other one had simply looked at him like he had been some stranger, some nameless bystander, just a suspicious figure, but nothing more.

Unasked another beer found its way in front of his eyes.

"You're nervous?" The woman behind him asked, letting her arms slide down along his neck. He could feel her breath just beside his ear.

"Aren't you?" He replied, sounding way more causal than he actually felt.

She laughed silently, took his empty glass and went back to the counter.

"He's just a friend, right? Don't sweat it."

"Just a friend," he echoed hollow.

Two years ago, he had no time to worry about the other one, after all this idiot and his friends had challenged the world nobles and with them the Marine and the World Government. But it had been entertaining at first, especially meeting the boy, who had been saved by Shanks, the boy who carried Roger's hat as an emblem.

Yes, it had been interesting to finally meet the straw hats, interesting to watch them, reminding him of better times.

They had asked countless questions, some of them for greater, some for smaller reasons. But what had he asked? Of all things he could have asked him, should have asked him?

'_How's an octopus get in with a big shot like yourself?'_

He had asked after Hachi. He hadn't expected that. He had expected two hands gripping his collar, throwing him against the next wall.

He had expected a rough _'And who the hell are you?'_ which he would have answered with a surprised _'Silvers Rayleigh', _just so the other one would press his elbow against his throat and gnarl _'No, why do you look so familiar?'_

He had expected that the other one would have at least recognized him, at least his face or his voice and it had almost hurt – oh well, it had hurt like hell – that the other one hadn't even recalled him in the slightest moment. That was exactly the reason why he was so nervous right now.

Two years ago, he had been beaming with hope that the other one might recognize him, but had been devastated afterwards. After all, if the other one would have remembered him, he wouldn't have waited so long to reach out to him.

Today Rayleigh didn't even dare to start hoping. Two years were long, but not nearly long enough.

"So, what if he doesn't recognize you?" Shakuyaku saw right through him. "Would that be such a horrible thing?"

"No", Rayleigh mumbled and emptied his second beer. "Basically, it's selfish from me to hope he might remember. After all he has a good life; he seemed happy, right?"

Slowly he turned in his chair to face the barkeeper.

"Did he seem happy to you?"

The black-haired lady laughed and placed a cigarette between her lips.

"Considering how many people were surrounding him, he seemed at least quite relaxed."

Rayleigh nodded slowly and put his arm on the back rest.

"You're right. He seemed to trust them."

Shakky tilted her head and met his eyes.

"Are you jealous?"

Instead of answering he stood up and walked towards her, taking her cigarette and took a deep draw. She laughed again but didn't stop him.

"You don't smoke."

His coughing was more than enough confirmation and he slumped down on a bar stool right in front of her, just the bar between them. After a couple of seconds, she turned to the window.

"He's arrived."

An unnecessary observation, of course he knew it, but he simply nodded while she offered him another glass.

"Strange, isn't it? He's ten days early. Usually he ain't one of the accurate guys."

He shrugged his shoulders and took the offered drink.

"Who knows, things can change."

In mutual silence Shakky started wiping the bar while Rayleigh tilted his glass from one side to another.

After some never-ending minutes he could finally hear those familiar footsteps just outside the bar. Heavy boots came closer, but Rayleigh kept his eyes on his glass, yet couldn't ignore Shakky's not so subtle grin.

Finally, the door behind his back swung open and Rayleigh couldn't hinder a smile.

"Zoro," the barkeeper mumbled in perfectly acted surprise, placing an elbow on the counter and taking a fine draft from her cigarette.

"The others aren't here yet?" His voice sounded deeper than two years ago, more mature. "Typical."

The former pirate took another sip.

"You're early," Rayleigh commented without turning around. Heavy footsteps hollowed through the small bar and with a grunt the swordsman sat down beside him.

"You wanna drink something?" The black-haired lady asked and already placed a filled beer mug in front of him.

"Thanks, Shakky. But don't you have something stronger for me?"

Rayleigh could hear the smirk in the other man's voice.

"I might," the owner agreed smiling and leaned towards the pirate before whispering, "but that ain't on the house."

"Oh, so I'm fine with beer," Zoro dodged with a grin and took a deep sip.

He took that moment to observe the former pirate.

It surprised Rayleigh, yet he went along with it and regarded the newcomer as well, noted the great changes – the new scar, the longer hair – as well as the subtle ones.

"Looking good, Silver." Zoro raised his already half-empty mug like he wanted to raise a toast to him; showing his crooked grin, which felt so oddly familiar.

The dark king laughed softly and returned to his whisky.

"No need to be so formal, Zoro. Just call me Rayleigh."

The other one tilted his head and took another sip.

"Nah, I prefer Silver."

Rayleigh bit his lip before shaking his head and emptying his glass.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Zoro, but I'd feel uncomfortable. A good friend of mine used to call me that."

"Who?" Suddenly the other one gripped his shoulder and pulled him around. "I thought I'm the only one to call you that!"

Surprised Rayleigh met Zoro's stone hard face, before it was torn apart by an evil grin.

"You… You remember?"

The other one laughed softly and patted his shoulder.

"Of course, I do. You thought I'd forget you?"

The other one pulled him in a strong embrace and for a moment Rayleigh held his friend tight, before placing a hand on his shoulder and keeping him an armlength at distance.

"Why are you here so early?"

Zoro raised an eyebrow.

"Quick-witted as always."

Then he brushed Rayleigh's hand off.

"I wanted to have some time to talk to you. But I'm mainly here to listen."

Both of them turned back to their drinks.

The former pirate still had a hard time believing, his heart racing with happiness, but he stayed serious.

"You want me to tell you about the One Piece?" He asked.

"Nonsense," Zoro denied, "don't care about that part of the story. No, you know what I mean."

"Roger."

The swordsman nodded and emptied his glass as well.

Seconds later the barkeeper offered him another glass filled with golden liquid.

"Whisky?" Zoro asked with a grin.

She winked at him. "Honey, I got no ethanol or spyritus, but at least this one's on the house."

They talked for hours, Shakky making sure they never ran dry while mainly Rayleigh talked. Sometimes Zoro would question specific things or comment on another one, but most of the time he was simply listening. He only interrupted Rayleigh immediately whenever he came too close to the One Piece or Raftel; it was more than obvious that Zoro didn't want to hear more than he already knew.

The sun had set hours ago, the window on Rayleigh's right showed a soft glimmer at the far horizon. A new day was about to begin.

"So," Rayleigh finished his tale, "that's about it I guess, or do you have any more questions? My tongue kind of feels swollen from all that talking."

"Oh, I can take care of that," Shakky grinned and refilled his glass.

Zorro joined him for another drink.

"So," Rayleigh started again. "What about you now? What's your plan?"

The swordsman shrugged his shoulders. "Drinking to death?"

"Not on my bill," Shakky gnarled jokingly and lifted an eyebrow before lighting another cigarette.

The dark king laughed into his glass. "Sounds good to me but that wasn't what I was talking about."

"I know," Zoro admitted and took another sip, "but there's not much to talk about."

"There isn't?" Rayleigh repeated. "You will continue to travel with the straw hats?"

"Of course." Zoro grinned. "After all I wanna find out all about the One Piece."

Rayleigh smiled as well. "And become the greatest swordsman in the world."

The dark grin of the other one grew. "Exactly."

For a moment both grinned before the former pirate became serious again.

"So, will you tell your friends the truth?"

"Nope." Zoro placed his empty glass in front of the barkeeper.

"No?"

"No."

Stunned Rayleigh stared at the other one who watched his glass being refilled.

"You won't let them in?"

"Didn't I just say that?" Zoro replied and watched him with a dry look.

"I doubt that's a smart idea," the former pirate judged harshly. "We both know that your past will catch up on you sooner or later."

"Certainly," Zoro agreed, "and then I will explain all I need to."

Suddenly his subtle smile disappeared and he looked almost sad.

"But we both know as well that I will have to leave the crew afterwards. So..."

"I don't think so. If you talk with them, I'm sure they will..."

"Nothing will change the past. No matter today, my deeds have been done and I can't make up for them." He emptied his drink in one go. "So I'll be totally selfish here and keep it to myself until I can't any longer."

Rayleigh shook his head and pursed his lips before commenting something he might would regret.

"I know what you're gonna say, Silver. But I want to stay with them as long as I can. They're my friends, so I want to protect them as long as possible."

"So let them in! If I were you, I would clear this mess sooner than later instead of waiting for things to turn bad and endangering myself to leave the crew."

Rayleigh had grown louder; the other one's pig head was purely annoying, but Zoro stayed calm as usual.

"This ain't you're decision. They're my crewmates and the less they know, the better for all of us."

Shaking his head and huffing angrily Rayleigh got up. Luckily Shakky had been thoughtful enough to disappear in the backroom.

"You're right. It's your decision, indeed," he gnarled and folded his arms, "and it's a stupid, a damn stupid decision."

"So what? You're gonna blow the whistle on me?"

Why was Zoro still so calm?

With a sigh Rayleigh turned for the window.

"No, of course not," he mumbled and looked over his shoulder at the other one, who was still sitting at the counter, "but somebody has to tell you how stupid you are."

The pirate laughed softly.

"Don't worry about that part."

"So what about Luffy?"

Zoro didn't even look at him.

"What about him? He's my captain."


	2. Chapter 1

Hello everybody,

thank you for your lovely comments, favoring, and following. I hope you'll enjoy the new chapter. Next upload will be on saturday/sunday depending on my schedule ;-)

See you then and have a great time

Sharry

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Chapter 1

-Nami-

"Okay guys, we'll get there in half an hour. Kamy said the Log Pose will need less than three hours to reposition. So..."

"All darts?"

"Yes Luffy, all _darts_ will reposition of course." The navigator rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Anyway, we should get going as soon as possible. I don't feel safe so close to the Red Line."

The other pirates answered more or less agreeing.

Not even two hours ago the Thousand Sunny, ship of the straw hat's crew, hat surfaced from the never-ending depths of the ocean. Just days ago, the crew had reunited, only to fall into a new adventure at the bottom of the sea.

They had left the Fishman-Island behind – or rather below – them and now the miracles and dangers of a brave new world awaited them.

An adventure they had trained for; for two long years they had waited for this moment, and now they were ready, more than ready.

"Anybody wants to stay onboard?" Nami asked and took a look around. She hadn't lied about her insecurity. At the horizon she could still see the Red Line and that sent cold shivers down her spine. Although the Marine Headquarters had been moved, the unbreachable wall of stone and dirt made her skin crawl and she couldn't wait for the needles at her wrist to reposition. She wanted to move on, even though she knew that what awaited them was certainly not less dangerous than what they had left behind.

Answering her question Franky, Usopp and Brook raised their hands.

"Wanna go down in my workshop," the cyborg mumbled, and the sniper nodded in agreement.

"Fine, so the rest of us can go ashore for a little bit. Any plans?"

She preferred to know what the others were up to. This way it was easier to collect all her crewmates in case something happened, because something always happened.

Especially her two favorite retards – namely Luffy and Zoro – shouldn't wander around on their own, each of them was a magnet for disaster.

"King Neptune recommended a book I would like to buy," Robin explained with a smile.

"And I need to stock up my supply. My stock is pretty low after Sanji's trouble."

"Tze, the cook is trouble himself. Kicking the bucket by nosebleed, pathetic," the swordsman of the crew commented dryly.

"Hey, ain't my fault, you aren't capable of understanding real beau..."

"But Zoro, Sanji was in a dangerous state, don't joke about it," Chopper interrupted the short-tempered cook and avoided unintentionally a larger dispute between the two men.

Nami cleared her throat to get back to the actual topic.

"What about you, Sanji? Need to go grocery shopping?"

The cook glared for another second towards the swordsman before smiling at Nami.

"Yes Nami-swan, I actually do. It's never wrong to keep the..."

"Okay, then that's settled," Nami murmured. She had a growing headache, maybe she had drunken a little bit too much at last night's party. But she knew exactly what would lighten up her mood.

"Luffy, you and I, we'll go shopping."

"Great!" The straw hat grinned widely. "We'll buy food?"

The navigator sighed. "By all means, when we're done, alright?"

"Awesome!" Their captain was dancing around happily, clapping his hands and singing "meat, meat, meat" overly excited.

"And you, Zoro, help Sanji."

"What?!" Both brawlers huffed in unison.

"Nami-swan, are you serious?"

"Not in a million years. Dartbrow can carry some bags on his own."

"How did you just call me?"

"So not only your nose is broken?"

"Well, look one-eye talking big!" Sanji stuck his tongue out towards the swordsman, pulling his left lower eyelid down.

"Even with one eye I can see your ridiculous dartbrow."

"Ain't half as ridiculous as your green mossheaUFF!"

"Ouch!"

"Can't you two just shut up?!"

Swordsman and cook were kneeling on the ground, rubbing her heads while the navigator hovered above them like a dawning thunderstorm.

"Zoro, you go with Sanji, period! I don't wanna leave late just because you got lost again."

"What do you mean by that?!" Zorro grumbled and got back on his feet, a hand still rubbing his head.

"Means you got the orientation of a cave crayfish," Sanji answered, back on his feet as well.

"Don't insult the crayfish," Usopp mumbled behind his hand.

"What?!" The swordsman spin towards the cook, a hand at his swords, but raised both hands defensively when Nami starred him down.

"Zoro could accompany me as well," Robin offered with a smile. "I could need some help with carrying all those books and I would make sure our swordsman will return safely."

Franky, Brook, Usopp, and Sanji giggled like little kids, but grew dead silent when the former pirate hunter glared at them. Only their captain didn't pause in his happy meat-dance.

Nami sighed but noted Robin's look and nodded softly.

"Go ahead, I don't care who takes..."

"Never mind. I'll go with the shitty cook, wanted to buy some sake anyway," Zorro murmured and waved it away.

"Like you had any money for that," Sanji commented with a smirk, but his favorite enemy only lifted an eyebrow.

"Okay, so that's that," Nami sighed relieved and nodded to her left where a vague shadow of an island had appeared at the horizon, "just in time, Looks like we're there."

-Sanji-

Not even half an hour later Sanji was in the middle of a huge market of a small town, dragging the annoying mosshead along, who verged to head into the wrong direction every few feet.

"This way Marimo, right. The other right."

"Stop nagging, stupid cook."

"Then stop running off all the time. We're on straight street, can't be too hard to take the right way."

"Just shut up, cook."

They glared at each other, but then Zoro pointed at something behind Sanji like they weren't in the middle of a heated discussion.

"What about this booth, let's take a look."

Sanji's eyes followed the other one and shook his head.

"That ain't your pay-grade, mosshead."

And of course, he should be right. The booth showed off the greatest rice wine in finest quality; Sanji could tell from the blue labels and because there wasn't a single price tag.

Actually, the offered goods awakened his curiosity too, as a cook it was his job to shop for the best food and it was seldom to find such an exquisite choice of sake. Still to buy only three or four of those bottles he probably would have to trade in at least one of his crewmates.

Besides the two pirates, multiple bystanders gave the booth a closer look, making it difficult for the cook to make it to the swordsman, although he was more worried about the goods in his bags.

When he finally reached his crewmember in the second row of potential customers he whispered into his ear.

"Come on, Marimo. That's Junmai Daiginjo Sake. We can't afford something like this, not if we don't find the One Piece within the next minute."

To his surprise the other one gave him an odd glance.

"You really believe the One Piece is a treasure?"

Sanji shrugged his shoulders.

"Treasure or not, this rice wine is way above our price range."

He watched the swordsman casting another glance at the expensive bottles before sighing and walking away, not even caring if Sanji could keep up with him or not.

Hastily Sanji made his way out of the group of people and followed the older one before that idiot could get lost.

It was almost too easy to make fun of sulking Zoro right now, on the other hand it was rare to see him being interested in something else than swords and fighting, so Sanji decided against mocking his favorite rival.

"What now?" The former pirate hunter asked almost too casual when Sanji reached him.

"Let me take a look."

The blond pulled his shopping list out of his pocket and browsed over it.

"So, guess we need some rice flour, but then we got it all."

"You wanna make rice cake?"

Zoro rose an eyebrow. Sanji nodded while they started walking again.

"What did you do to Chopper?"

The cook wasn't stupid. Everyone in their crew knew that their youngest friend and the swordsman had some weirdly close relationship and although the mosshead wasn't much of a considerate person it was sheer madness to distress Chopper in front of him.

"Nothing," Sanji replied and headed for the next booth.

"Then why the Mochis?" Distrust dropped out of each single syllable.

With a sigh Sanji turned for his crewmember, who observed him like a criminal.

"I promised him, that's it."

"Sure," Zorro murmured. "You hate to make rice cake, because it's sticky and can cause suffocation when eaten."

Surprised Sanji looked at the other one. Shockingly the swordsman was totally right. That was exactly the reason why Sanji usually denied those sweet little sugar bombs to their youngest crewmember, although Chopper loved them. But he hadn't been aware that the young doctor had apparently complained about it to the first mate.

"Why would you...?" Zoro paused in the middle of his interrogation and stopped walking.

Confused Sanji stopped as well, having no clue what was going on with the other one, Zoro's facial expression totally motionless, almost like a mask with an empty gaze looking at nothing. Suddenly Sanji's inner alarm bells went off. He tried to follow the swordsman's look, but the other one just grabbed him by the arm and dragged him along.

"We have to leave," Zoro gnarled, his voice even deeper than usually.

"What's wrong?" They hastened down the market, avoiding passengers and guiding their groceries carefully through the mass of people.

"Zoro, talk to me."

Sanji was half a step behind the other one as they reached the end of the market.

"No time, we need to get lost."

"Yeah, got that part, but why?"

They left the last houses behind them. It would take them roughly around ten minutes through the small piece of woods to reach the calm harbor if they took their time, but right now they were much faster of course.

"Like I said, we can talk about that when we're..."

Sanji rushed against the adamant back of Zoro, who had jerked to a halt and stopped talking.

"Dammit Zoro, what the hell?"

Sanji rubbed his nose, but then he realized why the other one stood still.

In front of them were three people, more exact two bald mountains of muscles and between them, looking almost fragile in comparison, a young woman.

She was beauty, as simple as that. Sanji noted her elegant silvery hair, cascading down her shoulders in gracious waves. Just like the men behind her she was wearing a flawless fitting black suit, showing off all her assets. Additionally, she wore an almost glowing white coat, enlightening her hair and her ice-blue eyes even more.

The cook was already lost to her beauty, her grace burned into his memories for all eternity, but then he noted the small brooch of her cape. It showed the emblem of the world nobles.

Sanji shivered while the woman smiled gently and folded her hands in front of her stomach, even her black gloves showed the painted hoof of the rising dragon.

"It's been such a long time, right _Roronoa Zoro?_"

Her voice was as soft as a feather and Sanji wasn't certain anymore, whether she was an enemy or the swordsman's former love interest. Well giving it a second thought she had to be an enemy. It was impossible that a noblesse like her would spend her private time with some ill-bred swordsman.

Apropos swordsman, Sanji's eyes darted to his side, just to watch Zoro gulping heavily and reaching for his weapons.

"Get lost," the former pirate hunter hissed without peeling his eyes from the woman in front of him.

Electricity filled the air but aside from the dangerous emblem Sanji was clueless why the other one tensed up so much. Those muscle mountains were nothing more than decoration, none of them dangerous to either of them, and the lady in front of them didn't seem like a fighter.

Now she smiled even wider and Sanji's heartbeat fastened up. She was way too good for the mosshead, but maybe she wanted to have some private time with Sanji instead.

"You can calm down. My father did not accompany me."

As a matter of fact, the swordsman let out a deep sigh of relief as an answer.

"But do not worry, as soon as I inform him that I found you, he will come."

Now Zoro stopped breathing.

But it was even more than that. Shocked Sanji watched the other one stepping back half a step, ignoring his cover and letting go of his grocery bags. Zoro was pale and his chin quivered.

The cook had no idea what was going on or why his favorite rival reacted that way, but he knew it was time to dive in.

"Bonjour mon amour," he whispered softly and took a step in front of his crewmember. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Sanji and with whom do I have the honor?"

For the very first time she met his eyes and Sanji knew that this moment alone was worth everything that might would happen afterwards.

"Oh, excuse my impolite behavior. Of course, I know who you are. My name is Korekuta Joudama and I'm here to retrieve Celestial Dragons' property."

"Excuse me?" Surprised Sanji glanced at the pale swordsman behind him. "You stole some world noble's stuff? How did you do that?"

"No reason to worry," the woman in the suit continued, "I am not here to mean any trouble for you or your crew. Just some small business and then I'll be gone."

"With you I'm always up for some business, you dream of my sleepless..."

"I'm not interested in negotiating with you."

Now she sounded way colder than before and her eyes had left Sanji long ago, looking straight at the man behind him.

"No," Zorro gnarled like a beast in a trap.

Not even slightly intimidated the young woman laughed lightly.

"Oh, you haven't even heard my offer."

"Not interested." The other one stepped forward again, standing right next to Sanji. "You're no match against me, so get lost before I kill you."

This threat took Sanji by surprise, but at least the other one sounded more like his usual self with every word he spoke.

"You won't," the World Government's woman insisted, "you won't fight me."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." By now the swordsman was showing his evil grin and Sanji felt much better, although the idiot mosshead was threatening a beautiful lady.

"But I am," she replied victoriously, "after all my father will come for you sooner or later and take what is his. You won't raise a finger against me."

The grin disappeared within half a second, taking Sanji's confidence along.

"But we can come to terms without consulting my father, if you agree, less dramatic, more civilized. Let us reach an agreement."

Zoro huffed in annoyance. "Yeah right, like I would bargain with you. There's nothing you could offer me, Joudama."

It seemed like the lady had just waited for that comment. She raised her left hand and right on clue the guy behind her pulled out a small booklet and gave it to her.

"Of course I have something to offer. What about number 4,052 for example, or number 1,128."

"What?" Sanji didn't get a thing, but that woman continued to ignore him.

"I'm not interested in anything from that list," the swordsman hissed.

"Are you certain? Maybe I should verify. Number 4,052; name: Tony Tony Chopper; attributes: reindeer, ate the human-human-fruit; category: slave and research."

Confused Sanji looked back and forth between the stranger and Zoro, who looked like somebody had just declared Chopper's death sentence.

"And about number 1,128; name: "Soulking" Brook, attribute: skeleton, former human, ate the Revive-Revive-Fruit, category: slave."

Now she smiled at Zoro.

"Aren't those two of your crewmembers? And here on the additional list I find another familiar name: Vinsmoke Sanji. Not categorized just yet, but as soon as he is, I'm certain he'll be part of the research fraction, although he would probably make a great slave as well. What's your opinion, _Zoro_?"

Sanji started sweating. Not once had he mentioned his family. He wanted to avoid that burden for his friends, and he had been ashamed as well, but this woman knew who he was and now Zoro did as well.

But the other didn't even react to this.

"What are you offering?" He asked motionless.

Appalled Sanji turned towards him. What the hell was he thinking? What did that goddamn list mean? Why were Chopper, Brook, and he mentioned and what the hell did Zoro steal that the world nobles would take such measures to get it back? Maybe his swords?

The woman made another step forward.

"If you accept my offer, I will erase those three objects from the list."

_Objects_?

"No." Zoro declined harsh and cold, but something about his voice sounded off, almost weak.

"So let me raise it up. None of your crewmembers' name will ever be put on that list."

The man next to Sanji gulped heavily. What the hell was Zoro thinking?! What the hell was going on? And how the hell knew that idiot mosshead such a woman?!

"And no traps?" Zoro demanded. "No fine print?"

She nodded. "Certainly. As long as you fulfill your part of the deal, we'll keep ours."

"Zoro, what the hell is going on?" He hissed, but Zorro ignored him as well and stepped forward.

"So, what do you say?" The woman met the pirate in the middle.

"Can someone please tell me what the fuck is happening?!" Sanji yelled and grabbed the other one's shoulder. Almost surprised Zoro looked at his hand, like he had completely forgotten, that Sanji was there at all. For a heartbeat they looked at each other.

"It's alright, cook."

Then he nodded to the noblesse and shrugged Sanji's hand off.

"Fine, here's my offer." Zoro held his hand towards the stranger. On clue she pulled her glove off and took his hand while Zoro continued. "None of my crewmates or any friends I may have will ever show up on that list or are hunted by you guys in any kind of form. For that I agree to accompany you unresistant."

"Wait a second? What?!" Sanji tried to jump in-between but even before the muscle-mountains could move, the ground beneath them rumbled and wind - stronger than anything Sanji had ever seen – shoved him back, blowing him away several feet. Out of nothing Zoro and the stranger were engulfed in shining light, while an invisible wall rose around them, keeping Sanji out of their private circle.

"Zoro, wait damn it! What the fuck are you doing?!" Sanji hammered against the glimmering wall of nothingness, but the other one didn't even look at him. "You can't do that, you freaking idiot!"

"One small limitation," the woman replied, her voice muffled like behind glass, "our renunciation of violence will fade the moment one of your friends or crewmates tries to actively stop us. Furthermore, you won't only accompany me unresistant but follow my orders until my father arrives."

Sanji still tried to break the wall, hitting, kicking, screaming. The ground between Zoro's feet crumbled and suddenly fluttering rolls of papyrus rose from the depths of the earth, wavering around the two people inside the light wall.

"Before we leave, I want five minutes to speak to the cook."

"Two and not a second longer."

Breathing heavily the swordsman nodded. The grin of the stranger grew hideously.

"Deal," she spoke clear.

"Deal," Zoro agreed just as strong.

The fluttering papyrus rolls coiled up around their handshake and then they were gone, just like the glimmering nothingness that was keeping Sanji out of their business. He stumbled against the swordsman.

"Zoro, what are you doing?"

The other one looked at him, almost gentle, almost just as gentle like when Zoro spoke with Chopper in the middle of the night after another nightmare.

But then Zoro pushed him back several steps, looking like his stern self again.

"Okay, listen up, cook. We only got 120 seconds."

"Zoro, what the hell is..."

"Didn't I just tell you to shut up?!"

The former pirate hunter pulled his three swords from his haramaki and urged them into Sanji's arms.

"I got no time to tell you the details, so listen: Don't come after me, don't you dare! You need to find Rayleigh. He can explain. Take care of my swords."

"Wait, wait, wait a second!"

"No, listen up. Tell Rayleigh what happened, you have to tell him exactly what deal I made, got it?"

"Okay?" Slowly Sanji understood, at least he understood how important it was that he remembered everything that happened.

Zoro leaned forward, whispering fast but not hastening, almost calm.

"And you need to tell him the following. Tell him, to regard his age."

"What?!"

"Yes, he's getting on a bit and has to consider that."

Zoro shook his head, looking over his shoulder before watching Sanji again.

"And another thing." Now the swordsman sounded softer, sadder, "I'm sorry. Didn't plan it like that. I didn't want to endanger any of you and didn't want you to find it out this way."

"Find out what?"

But Zoro didn't answer, simply grinned at him, a grin as natural as Franky's nose, before taking a deep breath and padding Sanji's shoulder.

Then he turned around.

"Alright Joudama, let's get going."

The stranger turned around as well and lifted her right hand; the muscle-mountain next to her offered her some reddish handcuffs.

Zoro hesitated a second before extending his hands and a silent _klick_ hollowed through the woods

"Take care of the others, cook." Zoro called out to Sanji.

"Deal between worlds," the stranger said to nobody but the air behind her started wavering.

"Go ahead," she ordered and Zoro did as she said.

Two steps later they were gone.

"No! Wait!" Sanji ran after them, but as he reached the wavering air nothing was left.

The cook was all alone in the forest, surrounded by grocery bags and Zoro was gone.


	3. Chapter 2

Hello everybody,

here comes the new chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it.  
The upcomming week will be rather busy so I will probably update the next chapter around the weekend again.

Hope you have a great time till then.

Sharry ;-)

* * *

Chapter 2

-Sanji-

"That can't be true."

Nami jumped from her chair and walked up and down the dining room, hands entangled with each other.

"Are you serious, Sanji?"

Angrily she stared at him, almost like he had tried to play a bad trick on her. Innocent he shrugged his shoulder.

"Do you really think I would joke about something like that? That's all he said and then he vanished literally with that lady."

Except for Nami, who was pacing around like a tiger caught in a cage, all remaining crewmembers sat at the grand table in the Thousand Sunny's dining room, only short of their swordsman.

Helpless Sanji had watched the Marimo making a deal with that foreign lady, watched him disappear in nothingness, leaving the cook behind to collect all the lost grocery bags and fetch the other crewmates.

After the last one – Luffy of course – had finally come back to the ship, Sanji had swiftly explained what had happened, unable to answer even half their questions. In between he had been serving coffee, not that the added caffeine was good for his nerves. By now he was smoking his fifth cigarette.

At first the others had been talking all at once, drowning each other voices, now they were all drowning in silence. Solely Luffy played with Usopp's self-made sugar-cube-slingshot while humming something quietly, totally ignorant to what Sanji was talking about.

"And Zoro seemed to know that beautiful stranger?" Brook asked, stealing one of his captain's sugar-cubes and stirring it into his coffee.

The cook nodded.

"Sanji, tell me her name again." Robin sat right next to the skeleton and observed her cup of coffee like it was a complicated puzzle, like it was a matter of life and death.

"Uhm, I think it was Joudama or something like that; the last name started with a K… Kolkata? Kokutta? Ko…?"

"Korekuta."

"Yeah, that was it!"

Surprised he regarded the archeologist, who was getting up as well.

"You know her?"

For a moment Robin bit her lip before finally nodding and running her hand through her hair.

"Certainly, Korekuta Joudama, I met her once, shortly after joining the Baroque Works."

"Really?" Chopper was still sniffling into one of Franky's oversized, dotted handkerchiefs.

Robin glanced at the young doctor.

"Sent by the world nobles she came to reclaim the world aristocrats' property from Crocodile. She was rather insisting and at some point offered a price even Crocodile couldn't refuse. At that time, it was about a golden sword."

Nami paused and watched the other woman. "_World aristocrats' property_? Who the hell is this woman, if she works for those?"

The archaeologist passed the navigator, placing a hand on her shoulder, and leaning against the counter.

"She is a Korekuta, a rarity hunter of the Celestial Dragons."

"Like an antiquarian?"

Robin nodded towards the cook.

"Something like that. In the world noble's name, the Korekutas travel over the whole world to collect everything on the _list_."

"What kind of list?" Usopp mumbled.

"Oh right, she was browsing through some little book and referred to Chopper and Brook by numbers," Sanji added.

"Numbers?" Franky leaned forward and lifted his sunglasses up. "So, what's up with that list, Robin?"

Asked woman folded her arms and sighed heavily.

"Nobody except the Korekuta family have ever seen the list itself, but whenever a world aristocrat wants something it's added to that list."

"And the rarity hunters collect this stuff afterwards?" Nami concluded, sitting down across from Sanji.

"This _stuff_ is more often than not a living being," Robin explained seriously. "As we know the world nobles have their own worldview. If they see something they want, they consider it already as their own and it is the Korekutas' duty to reclaim their property."

"This means," the skeleton continued that thought, "if Chopper and I'm on that list, they believe we're theirs? They were here to collect us?"

"I'm nobody's," Chopper grumbled into his handkerchief. "I'm a pirate, as free as the ocean."

"Indeed," Robin agreed with a subtle smile. "And it's not that easy. The concept of the list is quite complex. The _objects_ are sorted by their importance for the Celestial Dragons. It contains a total of 9,999 points. Not one more, not one less. Everything not on the list, can only be included after another point of the list has been taken care of. Nobody but Korekuta Muchinushi, head of the family and world noble, is enabled to modify the list."

Sanji paused. He hadn't told the other ones, that those hunters had mentioned his name concerning that list as well. On the other hand, he wasn't even on that list yet and it didn't matter if Zoro had made that deal because of two or three crewmembers, right?

Robin continued: "But being on that list alone isn't enough to be hunted by the Korekutas. The sword I was talking about was sorted as number 628 and only objects with three digits or less are actively searched for."

"So because Chopper was around 4,000 and I was around 1,000, they don't even hunt us?" Brook double-checked.

"Exactly. Only the first 999 objects of the list are important enough for the world aristocrats to be collected. Everything else is second-tier and only reclaimed if the opportunity arises."

"Does that mean - " Usopp poured himself some more coffee, while mumbling more to himself than to everybody else " - that Zoro has to be somewhere on that list, where they really want to catch him?"

Their sniper sounded unusually serious.

"I mean, they even agreed to scratch Chopper and Brook from that list, right? So that means Zoro has to be among those first 999 numbers."

"Ridiculous!" Huffing loudly Sanji shook his head. "I mean sure, that moss on his head is quite special, but rarity hunters for some broccoli? You got to be kidding me! How can this brainless muscle-head compete with a singing skeleton and a talking emergency ration?"

"Hey!" Chopper stood up angrily and Sanji raised both hands in a silent apology.

"Sorry, but seriously. In the end he's just some guy, without any special powers or devil fruit."

"As always you have a unique way in phrasing your worry about our swordsman."

He glanced at the archaeologist but didn't reply.

"Well Sanji isn't wrong, is he? What would they want from Zoro and more importantly why would he just agree to those terms?" Nami stood up again and walked over to the counter, apparently not able to sit still for a longer period of time. "Usually he's nobody who gets scared by some little threats. So, both of you are on that list, for all I care he's on it as well. Why the hell would that be reason enough for him to make such a deal? Zoro is more the type to draw his swords and provoke a fight than to simply nod and enter some contracts."

The others agreed silently, only Sanji kept staring at his cup. That was another thing he had not mentioned, the way Zoro had stared at that woman, the way he had stepped back, especially when this Joudama had only needed to mention her father to silence the otherwise fearless swordsman, all those things he had kicked in the long grass.

He didn't keep quiet about it because it wasn't important – more the opposite, that part of the story worried him the most – but he knew that this behavior was totally not fitting their idiotic swordsman and the Marimo wasn't probably too fond of the others hearing about it.

Zoro was one of the most fearless warriors Sanji had ever met - that at least he acknowledged - so all he tried to do right now, was trying to save his frenemy's face. It felt like he owed it to the other one.

The cyborg shrugged his shoulder.

"I think only Zoro himself can answer those questions. So the big deal is, what do we do know? We have no clue where Zoro-bro is, right?"

"You know he doesn't like it if you call him that," Usopp commented.

"Ain't like he can hear me," the shipwright replied.

"Let's hear what the captain says."

Everybody grew quiet as the archaeologist addressed the unusual quiet boy with the straw hat, who was still playing with the leftovers of his slingshot.

"I trust Zoro," he stated simply and smiled wide. "If he says we should visit Rayleigh, then that's what we're doing."

Just as plain and simple the captain's order was, putting it into practice was way more complicated. Thanks to the Vivre Card they knew at least which direction they had to turn to in order to find the former pirate, but they still had no clue how long it would take them and the Log Pose had already reset, so if they would change the course now it was fairly possible to get lost for good in the New World. A big risk, which especially the navigator would like to avoid.

However, no one of them was even thinking about leaving their swordsman behind and if Rayleigh was their only hint to get Zoro back, there wasn't much of a choice.

By now they had adjusted their course after the Vivre Card, ignoring the needles of the Log Pose. The evening was already dangerously close and although they were missing one of their comrades, their captain's mood didn't falter a second while he was playing cards with Usopp, Chopper, and Brook outside on the lawn. He was probably already used to rescue his friends, one after another.

Not quite as lightheaded were the other ones in the kitchen. Nami and Robin were sitting at the table, a crawling piece of paper between them under a glass bowl, and drinking coffee. Behind the counter was Sanji preparing the dinner and tried his best to work quietly, so he wouldn't disturb the intense conversation.

"I can't believe it! After more than two years we're finally back together, just so that this idiot gets lost within a couple of days." Nami slammed her fist onto the table. "What was this brainless moron thinking? Making a deal with a rarity hunter. I mean, didn't he even think about us before leaving?"

"Oh, I'm sure he didn't _get lost_ on purpose," Robin replied softly, yet not even smiling. "I assume he wanted to avoid worse from happening and after all he told us what to do."

"_Go to Rayleigh! Talk to Rayleigh!_ Not like that idiot could have left us some more breadcrumbs, right?" Failing in imitating the swordsman Nami brushed her hair aside, biting her cheek in annoyance.

"Was that really everything he said, Sanji?"

Surprised he looked up from peeling his potatoes.

"Yeah, that's it. He only had a few seconds to talk to me, afterwards that Korekuta could do with him whatever she wanted. I tell you, that kind of deal was crazy, more like magic."

"The Deal-Deal-Fruit."

"Excuse me?" Nami and Sanji turned for the quiet archaeologist.

She nodded towards her cup. "At that time, I watched her and Crocodile closing the deal. She ate from the Deal-Deal-Fruit and is able to make deals with everybody and everything as long as both sides offer and receive something. It's impossible to break a contract crafted with the power of the Deal-Deal-Fruit."

The other two shared an insecure look.

For another time the blond decided to keep quiet. Because for another time he hadn't told the whole truth. The swordsman had left him with that scary message for the crew.

_I'm sorry._

Zoro had apologized, something totally untypical for him and Sanji had decided to keep those few words to himself.

"You know quite a bit about her," Nami commented silently.

The other woman nodded without looking at anybody.

"She contacted me first in order to reclaim the sword. Afterwards I did my research of course, although it wasn't as easy as it seems." Her smile was nothing but fake. "She's a dangerous woman."

"You're sure?" Sanji had a difficult time to agree on that. The swordsman as well hadn't seemed too impressed by her. "I mean her skills are useful, especially in her job, but she didn't look like a fighter to me and she's so young."

"Oh, don't be blinded by her looks, Sanji." Finally, Robin looked up. "If my sources aren't mistaken, she's way older than she seems."

Sanji put his knife down.

"What do you mean by _way older_?"

A subtle, knowing smile crossed her lips like she was reading his thoughts.

"Let's say I found a picture of her from Gol D. Rogers execution and at that time she looked roughly about twenty years old."

"But that means she has to be about forty or something at least," Sanji whispered in silent horror.

"Well, genes matter," Nami shrugged it off and got up. "What's going on outside?"

She hadn't even finished her question, when the door was flung open.

"Hey, come out, quick!" Usopp stumbled inside waving at them.

"An attack?" Sanji was already on his way outside, following the sniper who put his goggles on.

"Don't think so," the other one replied and pointed at the water. "You see that? It's coming at us."

In the fading light it was hard for Sanji to see anything beside the dark waves surrounding them.

"What is it?" Nami walked up to him, squinting her eyes. "A boat?"

"Way too small for that," Franky judged, jumping down from the lookout. "But it's hard to make anything out; it's already too dark."

A soft laughter aroused behind Sanji. He turned for Robin who winked at him. Just in that second a silent splash distracted him, followed by a cold squall and a loud clash.

"Goodness, my landing used to be better as well."

"Rayleigh!"

The dark king was standing on their lawn, soaking wet in a puddle, water dripping down.

Luffy was already rushing towards him, crashing him into a breathtaking hug.

"We were just heading towards you!" The straw hat yelled grinning widely, his arms flung around the former pirate several times.

The newcomer laughed lightly. "Yeah, I tried to make it faster, but the coating from my boat broke when I was rising up, so I had to swim the rest by myself."

"And he's saying that like it's nothing," the sniper next to Sanji mumbled. "Not like 70% of all pirates kick the bucket while trying to dive under the Red Line."

"Well, we did it, didn't we?" The cyborg grinned.

"Yeah, but we're madmen."

"It's good you're here now, Rayleigh," Nami greeted the former pirate seriously. "But when you were already on your way, it has to be because of something important."

The old man nodded, and his smile vanished. Rayleigh regarded each single one of them for a moment, his facial expression darkening more and more.

"Where is Zoro?" He asked lightly but his eyes told another story.

"That's why we were looking for you," Luffy answered smiling, "Zoro told us to talk to you."

"Did he now?" Rayleigh looked down at Luffy. "That means he's no longer with you?"

Luffy shook his head.

"Nope, he went with some girl because of a list or whatever, didn't really get all that."

"Because you weren't listening," Nami grumbled and pushed her captain aside. "Korekuta Joudama was here and closed a deal with Zoro."

Suddenly the dark king seemed so much older than before, an ancient sorrow darkening his features, like deep regret caging him while running his hand over his face.

"I'm too late," he stated sober. "Once again, I'm too late."

"What do you know, Rayleigh?" Sanji noted several crewmates looking at him. "Why did this idiotic Marimo tell us to go to you? What the hell is happening?"

Shaking his head, the old man met Sanji's eyes.

"Shortly after your departure I heard that Joudama had arrived on Mary Joa. I was pretty sure that it wasn't a coincidence and so I buckled up to warn you, but of course she was one step ahead of me."

He started to wring his cloak out.

"Maybe we should go inside? Now that the sun is down it'll get chilly rather quickly."

Nobody rejected Robin's idea.

Inside of the dining room they waited for Rayleigh, who had to change clothes following Doctor Chopper's order.

To Sanji's dislike he recognized the shirt the newcomer was wearing immediately, when Rayleigh came back inside, now wearing dry clothes and a towel around his shoulders to keep his wet hair from dripping on his borrowed clothes, borrowed from Zoro and fitting almost too good.

Uncertain they waited for the former vice captain to take a seat, Sanji offering him a cup of tea as well and sitting down across from him.

"Fine," the newcomer started, "please tell me exactly what happened."

For another time Sanji could feel eyes on him. He cleared his throat and started talking.

Once again, he told what had happened, tried to recall every tiny detail, being as unimportant as it might be, tried to give the exact words Zoro and Joudama has said. But again, he left the few things out, he didn't share with the crew.

He didn't know why Zoro had sent them to this man, but if Sanji couldn't tell the crew everything, he would for sure not tell anybody else.

The whole time Rayleigh seemed almost calm. Every now and then he would take a sip from this tea, asking very few questions, sometimes shaking his head, sometimes huffing silently. But never, not only once, not even for half a second, he didn't observe Sanji.

"And that's it?" the former pirate asked after Sanji was finished with Zoro sending them to Rayleigh.

"Well he did add something at the end." Sanji cleared his throat while his cheeks got hot. "He said..." He bit his lip.

"Stop stuttering," Usopp threw in but slapping a hand in front of his mouth when Sanji glared at him.

"So the Marimo said – and that's just his opinion – I should tell you, that you have to regard your age."

"What?!" Nami, Usopp, Brook, and Franky yelled in unison.

His cheeks burned, but Sanji continued talking, while the dark king simply watched him expressionless.

"He said you're getting on a bit and have to consider that."

Suddenly the old man got up and Sanji shrunk to half his size on his chair.

"What a brazen joker," Rayleigh growled and folded his arms, hiding the slogan on his shirt. "Asking for my help and insulting me at the same time, through a messenger on top of it, unbelievable."

Grumbling under his breath the old man brought his cup to the sink and came back, now the small text _'bite me' _on his chest showing again.

"He's asking for your help?" Usopp asked and raised an eyebrow.

"Mhm," the other one agreed, "his words mean as much as 'Hey, you're ancient now, but it'd be really nice if you'd still bail me out' tze."

Rayleigh shook his head before nodding towards Sanji.

"Thank you for telling me everything." Then he turned for the door. "And thank you all for your hospitality. I should be back with Zoro by tomorrow evening and would like to borrow those clothes until then."

"Hu?"

"Wait a sec."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm coming with you!" Luffy jumped up as well.

Smiling politely the old man regarded the crew.

"I don't want to cause any inconvenience, beside my age -" He emphasized those words dangerously "- I'm completely capable of rescuing your swordsman."

"I'm still coming along," Luffy decided with a wide grin, "after all I'm the captain."

"I'm coming, too!" Chopper stood on his chair and lifted his hooves up high. "Zoro helped me so often, now it's my turn."

Robin laughed softly. "It's the responsibility of the crew, after all."

Sanji sighed. "Fine, if Robin-Darling wants to go, I can't back down, can I?"

"This will be totally SUUU..."

"Your enthusiasm doesn't even surprise me, still I would prefer to deal with this on my own."

All of them stared at the man at the door, silent distrust raising between them.

"Why?" Nami demanded.

"You think we're weak?" Usopp hissed between asking and daring.

"Is there something else you would like to tell us?" It was Brook who stood up to faze Rayleigh, an unreadable smile on his skull. "An unusual request; the crew standing at the sideline, leaving the task of saving their crewmate to an outsider. Especially you should know the weight of your words. Still you insist on this. I think you owe us at least an explanation."

All present people grew dead silent and watched the two oldest men in the room.

Smirking slightly the dark king bowed his head.

"Certainly, how thoughtless of me. Excuse my behavior. Of course, I understand that all of you want to save Zoro; you're comrades, you're friends."

Rayleigh walked over to the table and placed both hands on it, thinking for a moment.

"The thing is that I know a part of Zoro's past, which I'm not in the position to share with you."

"The part when Zoro met the Korekutas the first time?" The navigator guessed.

"Correct," Rayleigh confirmed. "Joudama is no danger for Zoro. But that doesn't count for her father, Korekuta Muchinushi."

"What a name," Usopp giggled, quieting down when everybody looked at him.

The former pirate cleared his throat.

"Nevertheless, this is the reason why I have to hurry up, so I reach Mystoria and free Zoro before Muchinushi arrives."

"Mystoria?" Nami repeated, deeply caught in thoughts.

"But that doesn't explain why you don't want us to come along," Sanji stated coolly.

It wasn't like he was best friends with the Marimo, but Brook was damn right; Zoro was a crewmember and it was their job to save that idiot, and if they had to beat him up for him to understand that he couldn't just bail on his crew, then that was part of their job as well.

A dark grin enlightened Rayleigh's face.

"Sharp minded, aren't you?"

Sanji didn't reply anything while the grin faded, and the former pirate became serious once again.

"I want to avoid that somebody of you does something you might regret later."

The crewmembers exchanged uncertain looks.

"Why should we regret helping Zoro?" Usopp asked wary.

The old man shrugged his shoulder.

"I can't answer your question for now, but trust me that it's easier for all of us, if I go alone to..."

"I don't care!"

Luffy stood up and folded his arms.

"I don't care if I wake up tomorrow regretting it. Zoro is part of this crew, he's my friend and that's why I'm getting him back. No matter what you or some stupid deal says." For a second nobody said anything. "I mean, after all I'm the captain."

The former pirate bowed his head in defeat.

"Aye."

His eyes lit up dangerously when he straightened up again.

"I warned you, but yes, it's your decision." Although it wasn't a threat Sanji felt his heart racing. "Very well, if you want to jump in, let's come up with a plan. How do we rescue Roronoa Zoro?"


	4. Chapter 3

So guys, you're lucky that I had a practice exam, which left me behind sulking so much, that I refused to continue studying for today.  
Because of this I had the time tonight to review this chapter for the last time, before uploading it (now) ;-)

You're welcome ;-P and I hope you'll enjoy it! Thank you for your comments!

Sharry

P.S.: Next chapter will probably come out next weekend, because I travel to my family it might come out friday before I leave or on sunday^^

* * *

Chapter 3

-Sanji-

With a sigh he slumped down on the couch; the sun had risen only minutes ago and none of them had been able to go to bed and catch some sleep.

Dinner had gotten late while the former pirate had talked, placing an Eternal Pose in the middle of the table and explaining them that the rarity hunters had two bases, one of them at a tiny island named Mystoria, where Zoro was probably held captured until Muchinushi would come and pick him up.

An attentive listener would have noticed probably that the old man had chosen his words rather carefully. Rayleigh hadn't said one word more than necessary, had dodged plain and subtle questions with ease. Whatever he knew about Zoro's past, he had made sure to not let even the tiniest hint slip.

One or two times the Dark King had mentioned that he wasn't happy about them accompanying him on saving Zoro, but he hadn't tried to argue them out of it again.

For hours they had struggled to come up with a plan, calculating risks and chances.

The base they were aiming for wasn't Enis Lobby, certainly no Impel Down, and according to Rayleigh those Korekutas weren't much of fighters either. Few people would dare to attack world aristocrats. Yet none of them were taking this lightly, well at least Robin, Franky, Nami, and Sanji weren't taking it lightly. The other half of the crew, well, at least they had listened to most of the plan.

Especially the former pirate was reason enough for the four of them to stay cautious. Everything Rayleigh had said made it sound like getting Zoro out was actually a piece of cake.

So why the hell was Gol D. Roger's former vice captain so tense?

He hadn't been drinking almost anything and whenever he hadn't been the center of attention he had been staring thoughtfully out of the window. Sanji had shared several looks about that with the archaeologist; she as well had noticed this worrisome behavior of the former pirate.

At some point Nami had sent everybody to bed, including the dark king, but Sanji had enjoyed way too much coffee and nicotine to fall asleep.

By now the kitchen was shining like the day they had moved onto the Sunny. Now there was nothing left to do for Sanji, still he couldn't relax, his thoughts unable to calm down.

Something about this whole story smelled fishy. Zoro, fearless and bloodthirsty former pirate hunter, played obedient little soldier because of some lady with a list.

Rayleigh, one of the world's most dangerous and strongest pirates alive, seemed to be worried because of a guy named Muchinushi. Then all this secretiveness about Zoro's past, what was that about so suddenly?

All honestly Sanji had never given much thought about Zoro's past. He knew that the other one had grown up in a dojo in the East Blue, but that was about it. Nowhere within this peaceful line fitted the Devil's Right Hand or the world noble's rarity hunters.

Sighing deeply, he lit up another cigarette, he had stopped counting somewhere around washing dishes. He tried to picture young, innocent, little pirate hunter Zoro trying to catch the Dark King Silvers Rayleigh and running into the Korekutas. The idea of teenager Marimo, not even capable of growing a beard yet, trying to hunt down one of the most dangerous pirates alive just to get his bounty made Sanji giggle slightly and he decided to accept that picture as Zoro's past until he would hear the real truth.

"What's so funny?"

Surprised he looked up. Robin was just entering the room.

"Good morning, my lovely Robin. Didn't you want to catch a few minutes of sleep?"

"Well, I assume I made the same mistake you did," she replied with a soft smile and walked over to him, "too much coffee cause restiveness, am I right?"

She sat down on one of the chairs at the table, leaning her shoulder against the back of it.

Instead of answering, Sanji took another draw from his cigarette.

"You're worried." It wasn't a question; she knew him too well. Robin was too smart to miss such details.

"Just like you are." He gave her half a smile. "You noticed it as well, right?"

Robin tilted her head slightly. „What exactly? The way Rayleigh talks about Muchinushi or the way he pronounces Zoro's name?"

"I actually thought about the way he behaves when he thinks nobody's watching."

"Oh, good catch."

None of them were smiling anymore.

"I doubt our little rescue will be as easy as it sounds right now," she admitted after a second, "otherwise Rayleigh wouldn't try to keep us out of it."

Sanji nodded, caught in thoughts. "Do you think one of the others noted it as well."

All he got as an answer was a subtle laughter.

"What are you keeping from us, Sanji?" Her sudden question startled him.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Oh please." She laughed again, like she was flirting with a stranger at a bar and not having a serious conversation. "You were just as careful in choosing your words as Rayleigh."

"Touché."

He couldn't hinder a smile but avoided her gaze.

"It's because of Zoro," he mumbled stubbornly.

"Of course it is."

Now he looked up to meet her smile.

"You should have been there, I have never seen him like that." He shook his head. "When this Korekuta mentioned her father..." He didn't continue but lowered his eyes again.

Robin stood up and Sanji could feel her eyes upon him.

"What do you know about this Muchinushi-guy?" He asked the silence.

"What I know worries me deeply."

Sanji got up as well.

"Why?"

She took a deep breath.

"Korekuta Muchinushi is a powerful world noble and his knowledge about _rarities_ is truly unique."

Now they met each other's eyes again.

"But he's a man acting behind the curtain. His daughter leads the active duty. I cannot grasp while his name alone is enough to faze Rayleigh as well as our swordsman. He's a scientist, a scholar, but surely no true opponent in a fight."

"Doesn't sound too worrisome if you ask me."

She shrugged her shoulders.

"And that's exactly the reason, why it worries me even more." Shaking her head, she walked towards the door. "We should rest a little bit. I have this looming feeling, that our rescue mission might awaken countless surprises."

Sanji followed her to the door. "Not like that's something unusual for us."

She smiled softly, but her eyes stayed cold. She had already opened the door but didn't leave.

"Robin?" He asked after she stood there for several seconds, she was only an arm-length away from him, but her eyes looked far away, like she saw something in the distance.

"I knew it," she mumbled at somebody that wasn't him, "I knew something like that would happen."

"You knew Zoro would jump into that rotten deal with Korekuta?"

The archaeologist bit her lip, before turning towards him but still not looking at him.

"Did you notice it?"

"Notice what?"

"Zoro? How different he behaved."

Sanji tilted his head.

"You mean when those hunters showed up? No clue, maybe..."

"No." In one swift movement Robin turned away again. "Even before. At first, I thought it was because we had been separated for so long. Zoro isn't somebody who trusts easily. I thought he would just need a few days."

Confused Sanji watched her, unable to follow her thoughts. It wasn't like he had paid any attention to it, but it didn't seem to him like the Marimo had changed much during the last two years. Sure, some different clothes, new haircut, but still as moody, still as tight-lipped.

"Well… I..."

"He detached himself." Robin wasn't talking to him. "Something must have happened during those last two years and because of that he can't trust us anymore."

It felt wrong to listen to her like she spoke of her most private thoughts.

"No, no. Rayleigh said it was part of his past. It has to be something, that happened even before Zoro met Luffy."

Shaking her head, she finally opened the door.

"But how did Rayleigh come to know Zoro? What is he not telling us?"

Mumbling under her breath she left the confused cook behind.

The lack of sleep must have made her talkative, because Sanji was damn sure she wouldn't have told him otherwise. Still he couldn't deny that he thought similar.

He wished Rayleigh wouldn't keep his mouth shut about that oh so mystic part of Zoro's past, maybe then they were able to prepare, but he wouldn't talk, acting even more suspicious. By now Sanji agreed with Robin that the Dark King hadn't met Zoro just two years ago at the Sabaody Archipelago.

No, this wasn't about something that had happened during those last two years, this here was way bigger.

How the hell did Rayleigh know Zoro?

"A world broken apart, nations rising, empires falling. The time of change has come. The year is 1467 and two brave heroes facing the dangers of a dark..."

"Could you please just shut up?"

"Oh, don't be so moody. This is fun."

"Stumbling through some jungle in soaking wet clothes sounds fun to you?"

He smacked a branch away, which paid back by slapping the back of his head.

"Sure. Can't you feel it? The warm air, the mighty trees. We're like two adventurers searching for a lost treasure. Close your eyes and feel the energy around you."

The other one grinned at him over his shoulder and almost ran into a trunk.

"All I can feel are those damn mosquito bites and the damp heat."

Finally, the other one looked less excited.

"Oh, come on, you're killing the mood. It's such a great day and you're tearing it apart."

"Me?! I'm tearing it apart?" He tried to head up to the other one but slipped on the muddy ground and almost met it with his face. "You're the idiot that tore apart my boat! Offshore kicking a hole into the bow! We have nothing but what we're wearing! You know how difficult it was to get that boat?!"

"Didn't you steal it?" The other one grumbled.

"Yeah, and that was some tough work! For nothing! We're in the middle of nowhere on a goddamn island? How the hell do you want to get away from here? Wanna build a raft?"

"Don't know how to do that. What about you?"

"Of course I don't. Why do you think did I steal the last freaking boat?"

"I thought it was because of your kleptomaniac traits."

"I'm more surprised you even know what that means."

In silence they marched on. It was really warm and sweltering. Pirates like them weren't meant to fight their ways through a jungle.

"At least we didn't drown", the other one mumbled sulking.

He didn't answer. Yeah, at least they hadn't drowned. But he knew that asshole walking next to him for less than two weeks and up until now he had lost all his savings to booze, had engaged in four bar fights and had been chased by the Marine, twice. Yeah, at least his life wasn't as boring as before.

And now he had lost his boat.

"Why didn't I let ya drown?"

"Because we're friends." The other one grinned at him widely and entangled himself in a liana. "Furthermore, I'm your captain." With those words the other one tumbled to the ground.

With a sigh he pulled his captain back on his feet before fetching the dusty straw hat from the ground.

"Where is your damn fate when we need it? Now would be a good moment."

"Oh, my dear Rayleigh." The other one threw an arm around his shoulder. "You can't order something like that to happen. What's supposed to be will be. Trust me."

He rolled his eyes and walked on, carefully not to fall again.

"The ground is so damn muddy." That was Rayleigh's final note on this conversation.

Their marsh should go on like this for roughly an hour. At some point it suddenly went downhill again, which led to both men meeting the mud down at their feet several more times with arms, hands, and faces.

Eventually the jungle lit up and - to Rayleigh's relief - he spotted a bigger village not too far away.

"We should find something to eat there," his comrade said.

"We should find a boat there," he agreed.

"Do you want to steal one?"

"Well, I certainly don't want to stay here."

Slowly, they were getting closer and closer.

"We could buy one," the black-haired one suggested.

"My few coins, you haven't wasted yet on drinking, are at the bottom of the sea."

The other one wriggled through his trouser pockets, pulling out a few crumpled and popped up bills.

The blond snorted mockingly. "With those few Berrys we might just be able to pay the bathhouse."

The man next to him pulled a snub. "And how are we supposed to get something to eat?"

Now he couldn't prevent a smile. "Oh, don't worry my friend, that's why you got me."

A short time later, both men came freshly washed and significantly more relaxed from the local bathhouse, which was just known for its hot salt baths.

Smelling of papaya and coconut, they strolled down the main road that ran right along the coast. The older one closely surveyed the small ships they passed while the younger one inspected the shops on the other side of the road. Passing other folks, the blond took one or another wallet with him, of course without being noticed.

Eventually, they found a small place where they could both eat something and stock up supplies. The little tavern may not have looked particularly welcoming, but it seemed cheap and that was what mattered.

After ordering, the two men sat down at a table close to door and window to quickly blow off in case of an emergency. Few others were already present during the early afternoon, and those few smelled of alcohol and cigarettes while somehow still managing to cling onto their chairs at the bar.

The strangers near the door were pursued with wary eyes.

The food was far from excellent, but it served its purpose. The two quietly chatted, evaluating which boat was suitable for their onward journey. At the same time, Rayleigh counted the money that had come together so far. It was by no means enough to pay for all the necessities they would need.

He was already considering whether it would make sense to get in here the upcoming night as well to steal what they needed, the till at least had looked pretty full. He didn't necessarily like to swipe stuff, but he was a pirate and he needed the money.

His counterpart tackled the whole thing a little bit looser and didn't brood too much about the future while clearly enjoying his food.

They were almost done when the door behind them was thrown open and suddenly it became freezing cold in the room.

Rayleigh turned around on the bench, staring towards the entrance like everybody else, except - of course - for the young man with the straw hat, who did not seem to notice the change of mood.

The man who came in radiated an aura that impressed even the blond. He stopped in the door frame and stared down each of them without even having to look at them.

Then he strode into the room, towards the counter.

Except for his charisma, nothing seemed special about the stranger. He wore shredded clothes like any other homeless and otherwise he was as dirty as any other lump. His hair was so full of dirt that it was impossible to guess the actual hair color between all that brown and green.

As he stood at the counter, everybody else swallowed in sync before quickly averting their glances from him, only Rayleigh kept his gaze on the stranger's back. This guy didn't mean anything good.

"What can I do for ya?" The one-eyed man sounded serene behind the counter, yet everyone knew his fingers were fishing for his rifle under the old wood.

"Ethanol."

A cold shiver ran down the pirate's neck. That word alone was threat enough.

"Oh sorry, boy. Don't got something like that. This is a tavern, no hospital. Wanna get a drink instead?"

There was less and less air in the room.

"Absinthe."

"Um, well I'm short on that one, sorry."

"So, what do you have then?"

Slowly, no one dared to breathe anymore.

"Depends on what you want?"

"Alcohol."

„Yeah good, what kind of one?"

„Strong one."

The old man wiped the sweat from his forehead.

„I'd have 80% straw rum there. Would that work?"

The stranger just nodded.

„Warm or cold?"

„As a bottle."

Rayleigh peeled his eyes from the stranger, only to notice that his counterpart was the only one within the whole room who apparently failed to heed the newcomer.

A few seconds later, the old man put a dusty bottle on the counter. The stranger popped two crumpled bills next to it, took the bottle and left.

Just as everyone was breathing a sigh of relief, he paused. For a moment, he stared directly at Roger, who didn't even seem to notice.

Rayleigh on the other hand had the uneasy urge of having to stand between them. This dead look with which the other one stared at his captain did not please him at all.

Suddenly the stranger looked at Rayleigh. His lifeless eyes seemed to eat into his soul, all the light seemed to be sucked out of him.

Then the stranger turned to the door and disappeared.

Slowly, the remaining people began to quietly talk and gossip about what just had happened, but Rayleigh was struggling for breath. Although the stranger had seemed barely older than him, he appeared to be a man who had already seen too much.

Gratefully, he concluded that he would probably never encounter this man again.

"I made up my mind." His counterpart suddenly got up. "Let's go, Rayleigh."

"Where to go?" He also stood up and put the necessary money on the table.

"Following the guy from a second ago."

"What? Why?"

The black-haired one grinned at him.

"Well, because he's going to be our new crewmember!"

Words were powerless, just didn't get through that skull of stubbornness. Even after a minute-long discussion, Roger didn't let Rayleigh's reasons dissuade him from finding the stranger. Rayleigh ran next to him and talked and talked, but Roger had made up his mind.

For whatever reason, he wanted to add the stranger to his crew.

But the blond had not given up all hope just yet. First of all, the stranger would have to agree to Roger's offer and to do so they had to find him in the first place and it certainly didn't seem to be as simple as that.

Sunset was about to pass, and the mysterious stranger was nowhere to be seen.

"Okay, Roger. Listen to me." He grabbed the other by the arm. "Once it's dark, we have to pursue our plan. We can't spend all night trying to find some alcoholic."

They still had no money, no supplies, and no boat yet, but that didn't matter to the other. He wanted to find this guy, no matter what. By now they had reached the end of the village, in front of them was little more than the wilderness, which became a deep jungle within a few steps.

"There are people," the younger one muttered and the next moment he walked towards the woods, leaving Rayleigh behind with no choice but to follow him.

After a short pace, he could also see the flickering light of a fire in the shadows and hear loud voices.

"We should kill him."

"Are you nuts?! This certainly brings us some cash. Heard that the World Government used to offer great deals of money for those who catch the likes of him alive."

Carefully, the two pirates sneaked through the woods and listened to the obviously drunk men, who had set up a campfire in the middle of the jungle. Due to the wet ground they probably didn't seem worried that they might start a wildfire.

"There he is." Roger nodded to his left and Rayleigh followed his gaze.

Apart from the fire, almost hidden from the shadows of the trees, the stranger was chained to an ancient, mighty trunk. The chains almost shimmered in the light of the flames like they were made of bronze.

Yet that wasn't what took the pirate's breath away.

Slowly they scurried through the branches and across roots, closer to the prisoner.

Now Rayleigh was sure. In the beginning, he had thought it had to be an optical illusion, but now he could see clearly that the stranger was no longer the same person he had encountered during the afternoon in the tavern. He still wore the same torn clothes and was still just as dirty, yet otherwise he had little in common with the man from before.

The first thing the pirate noted was the eye-catching tattoo, which crawled over the entire left half of the face in ornate lines and patterns until they were buried by the hairline. The black contours interweaved with each other some places and spread apart elsewhere, gliding down the left half of the neck before disappearing under the worn top.

The other half of the stranger looked the same as before.

Or almost as before; while approaching, Rayleigh realized that even that was not true. Yes, the odd tattoo seemed to cover only the left half of his body, but that wasn't the only change.

Suddenly the prisoner stared directly at Rayleigh. His eyes were just as lifeless as before, just as icy, but they weren't the same as before. Earlier that day a man had looked at Rayleigh, now Rayleigh was not sure what was looking at him. Maybe it was just due to the flickering shadows, but the pirate believed to see narrowed oval pupils like the eyes of a cat. The iris filled out the complete eye or was it just because of the flames that Rayleigh couldn't see any white?

He briefly closed his eyes and stared again. The stranger still looked at him with the inhuman eyes of a predator.

"Okay," Roger muttered, hitting his fists against each other, "let's get him, shall we?"

"Wait," Rayleigh hissed in his comrade's ear. "Let's wait until the others are asleep. If we cause a stir now, we won't be able to snitch a boat and be trapped on this island."

Grumbling quietly the other agreed with him, but Rayleigh had a very different reason why he didn't want to act just yet. He needed time to figure out what to do.

Roger wouldn't leave before that stranger had joined his crew, but Rayleigh had a subtle idea who the prisoner could be, and if his intuition was correct, they had more to worry about than whether the stranger would refuse Roger, their lives could be at stake here.

However, it was rather unlikely. How should a few drunk idiots be able to catch a monster from the fairy tales?

But Rayleigh couldn't be sure and as long as he didn't know how dangerous the stranger was, he could only do one thing: Lie.

After something that felt like an eternity, the last drunkard had finally fallen asleep, unaware of the pirates watching them.

Now Rayleigh could not stop his captain, who just walked out of their hiding spot and strolled towards the prisoner. Although the stranger was chained against a tree a little bit apart from the camp, they were not far enough away to be able to chat without any problems, but the black-haired spoke quite unbothered by that worry.

"Hey, how's it going?"

Rayleigh rushed after him, but the stranger did not react, only looked at them coolly.

"Not much of a talker, right?" Roger asked chatty.

"So," he sighed sustained, "then I just get started, okay?"

The stranger stayed quiet.

"I have a suggestion for you: I free you and in return you join my pirate crew, okay?"

Silence.

„Uhm, could you at least give me a sign if you understand me? Otherwise, I just consider your silence as an agreement:"

The prisoner snorted scornfully, but his thin lips did not even move.

"Why would I do that?" His deep voice sounded like the growl of an animal, like the rumbling of a dragon, like a single force of nature.

Roger shrugged his shoulders. "I think it was fate that we meet."

"Wait a minute," Rayleigh interjected, "you say that to everyone you want to recruit?"

His captain grinned mischievously. "If it's true."

"No."

Surprised, both pirates turned towards the stranger.

"No?"

"No."

"Did he just refuse?"

"I think so."

"For real?" Roger took a step forward. "Are you stupid or what? Those guys talked about killing you and we could just untie you. Why would you reject?"

The stranger slightly tilted his head, like a pit of calm nothingness.

"And pledge loyalty to a person like you? Why should I bow to you when I can die in freedom?"

"In freedom?" The blond repeated cynically.

"It's easy." The black-haired, on the other hand, was heating up. "Because I'll be going big. I tell ya; I was not born into this world to disappear just as unknown. I want to achieve something; I want to make a difference. I will travel the whole world, ascend to heaven, sink down into the ocean, until I find what I am looking for, until the world knows my name."  
Euphorically, Roger had spread both arms and raised his voice. Rayleigh behind him just rolled his eyes and surveyed the sleeping drunkards by the dying fire. This was not the first theatrical speech he had heard from his captain.

"Of course, you can die here, if that's what you want. But let's be blunt, who wants to die like that? You don't look like a guy who just gives up. You're a fighter, a warrior, unbending, undefeatable. Come with me." He reached out a hand after the stranger. "You're also looking for something, aren't ya? You have these hungry eyes; I can see it. There's something you want, that's why you can't die just yet. Let's seek it together. Let the world shout our names."

"You seem to have great confidence in yourself, are you a fool or a dreamer?" The stranger tilted his head to the other side.

"A dreamer!" Deep persuasion resonated in each syllable. "Listen to me, my friend, my name is Gol…"

"Gold!" Hurriedly, Rayleigh jumped in between. "His name's Gold and I'm Silver. We are on a quest. We're searching for what has been lost."

He could see his captain grinning at him, obviously naive enough to believe that Rayleigh was now supporting him and not in the least guessing what he was really doing.

"You seem to be on your own." Rayleigh continued. "There are only a few of us left. _Dreamers, _I mean."

Roger just grinned wider.

"So, are you a dreamer, too?"

But the stranger remained serious, observing them wary, as if he were deliberating about their words.

"At least I'm not a fool," he finally said.

"Then we have the same goal," Roger decided with a smile. "Come with me, become my crewmember."

In the background, the first sleepers were stirring.

"Fine," the stranger said coolly. "I'm going to follow you."

"Nice. Open his chains."

Rayleigh stepped forward and started cracking up the lock. Looking more closely, he noted that the chains were indeed made of bronze, an extremely rare choice for chains, but not uncommon in this part of the world, as the floors here were rich of metals of all kinds.

As the chains fell off, he could see that they had burned deep into the stranger's skin as if they had been red-hot or covered in acid, but the stranger did not even flinch.

"Tell me," the black-haired mumbled as they hurried through the jungle, "what's your name by the way?"

"Bronze."

Rayleigh couldn't prevent a quiet laugh, either that was a bad joke or a coincidence that was hardly meant to be possible. Headshaking he grinned, at the end it didn't matter, did it?

"Well Bronze, have you ever stolen a boat?"

Suddenly Rayleigh lost the muddy ground under his feet, hard hitting the solid floor.

He tore his eyes open.

He was no longer in the jungle; it wasn't night anymore. Bright light poured into the room through an open door. Slightly confused, he looked around.

He was on the Thousand Sunny, the ship of straw hat pirates and had taken a nap on the sofa in the men's cabin. Now he lay on the wooden floor and his head was throbbing.

Head shaking, he got up and rubbed through his face with both hands.

"Fate," he mused. "Whatever that means, hmm?"


	5. Chapter 4

Hello everybody^^

it's friday and here's the new chapter.  
Thank you all for your lovely comments and favors, I really appreciate them ;-)

Upcomming friday will be my goddaughter's very first birthday, so I will probably post the next chapter on saturday or sunday.

Therefor I hope you all have some great vaccation and those of you, who celebrate chistmas, have blessed days with your loved ones.

Let's finish this year with spreading some kindness^^

Sharry

* * *

Chapter 4

-Sanji-

"And? You see something?"

„Nope, too foggy. I doubt I'd even notice if the Marine Headquarters were right ahead of us."

„Step aside, Sanji."

Usopp pushed him away and looked through the sighting scope.

"Hey, Usopp. If I don't see anything, you won't..."

"Okay. Found it. We're almost there."

"What the hell…?"

"All right, I'll inform the others."

Sanji, Usopp, and Nami were squatted together within the Shark Submerge. The navigator had just told the remaining members of the rescue mission left behind on the Thousand Sunny that they had reached Mystoria via Den Den Mushi.

"Well," she said as she hung up, "the others will prepare the diversionary maneuver now."

"Then we should get started, too."

Sanji looked at Usopp, who nodded after a brief second.

"Okay."

"Usopp, you need to move the lever, so we can emerge."

"Yes, I know."

Nothing happened.

"Usopp, the lever."

The sniper still didn't move.

"Hey, Uso..."

"Do I really have to come along? I could tell you from here..."

"Oh, stop it!"

Nami pushed past Usopp and pulled the lever.

A few minutes later, the three pirates came ashore.

Rayleigh appeared to be right; the rarity hunters' island was indeed not particularly big. Like a huge wooden circus tent, the Kurekutas' base occupied almost half of the island.

"The question is whether they actually see the Sunny with that damn fog," Sanji muttered as they sneaked to the back entrance. It was early afternoon and yet he could barely see his hand in front of his eye. This was extremely convenient to break in, as it was almost impossible to be noticed by anyone, but their complete diversionary maneuver was built on the fact that the rarity hunters would see the approaching ship and then be forced to act, not paying attention to what would happen within their own stronghold.

"Don't worry, Franky will take care of it," Nami replied. She was visibly tense. "Can't you work a little bit faster, Usopp?"

The sniper was squatting in front of the locked door.

"This is no ordinary lock, okay?" he hissed back, placing his hand - in which a winding twiner moved for- and backwards - closer to the keyhole. "We also need to make sure that all sensor and Surveillance Den Den Mushis have lost their communication connection, before we enter."

"And this little thing in your hand is able to do that?" Sanji doubted it, pointing at the tiny plant in the sniper's hand. "Looks pretty puny if you ask me."

"Don't listen to him, Mandaline, you're doing great."

The small twiner had almost completely disappeared within the keyhole, only a small tail hanging out.

"Mandaline is a very clever plant, Sanji," Usopp explained. "It's attracted by the Den Den Mushis' signals, and because Mandaline emits a scent that lures in animals, the Den Den Mushis eat them as soon as they grow close enough. But due to the serum in Mandaline's cells they'll..."

"Yeah, we get it." Nami interrupted him. "Your plants are awesome, Usopp, but how long till we can get in?"

The sniper pouted but continued to explain: "As soon as Mandaline no longer receives any signals, it'll start blooming to attract new animals, then we can get in."

"And you're sure no one will notice that plant inside?"

"As I said before, it grows only close to the walls and... Oh, it's blooming!"

The little tail, hanging out like a dirty green worm, opened up from the inside out and a multitude of small yellow bobbles squeezed outwards.

Almost at the same time, they could hear a small _click_ from inside the door.

"Thank you, Mandaline," Usopp muttered, pushing the handle down; the door was unlocked.

Nami exchanged a slightly skeptical look with Sanji before swinging her climate tact and quietly whispering: "Mirage Tempo."

Nothing seemed to change for Sanji, but he trusted the navigator's skills, hopefully they were truly invisible to their environment.

For a moment they looked at each other seriously, then the sniper quietly opened the door and they hurried past the entrance.

Inside, Sanji understood why Rayleigh had insisted that the small rescue force did not include any devil fruit user. The inside of the room appeared to be completely lined with dark metal. Even the inside of the door was covered with it.

"Seastone," Usopp whispered, taking a closer look at the walls. "How much money do they must have to be able to cover a whole warehouse with it?"

Neither Nami nor Sanji responded as they walked through the aisles of high-stacked boxes. The ceiling seemed to be far away, and heavy chandeliers hung down, to their left were numerous cages, also made of black metal, all of them empty. Mandaline entwined around some of the black poles, the yellow bobbles had already withered and slowly it collapsed to the ground.

"Not much going on here."

"Shhh..." Nami hurriedly turned to the sniper.

"What? There is no one here. They obviously don't seem to expect burglars."

Carefully, Sanji stepped over a Surveillance Den Den Mushi, that swayed back and forth as if it was drunk.

"Who is mad enough to actually try robbing the world aristocrats?" he commented.

"Well, we do." Nami next to him grinned slightly mischievously. The chef had to admit that it made her look incredibly seductive.

"You sound like you're enjoying it. Talking about kleptomaniac traits... ouch!"

"Be quiet and shut up."

The navigator hit her elbow against the sniper's side. Wary, Sanji looked around. Nami's little magic trick may have concealed them, but they could still be heard very well.

After nothing happened for several seconds, they continued their way.

"Where is this birdcage Rayleigh was talking about?" Nami whispered so softly close to Sanji's ear that he could feel her breath, the temperature of his body rising.

"Concentrate, Sanji!" She slapped him slightly on the back of his head, but that helped only to a limited extent.

The Dark King had told them that Zoro would probably be locked away in a birdcage. The only question was how to put a fully-grown man into such a small prison.

Therefor Sanji rather suspected that _birdcage_ was only the name for a particular cell.

Or maybe not.

As they came around the next corner, it seemed like they had reached the center of the camp. To their left was a wide aisle, leading down to a huge, closed double-door gate, but actually they all stared to the right.

Just a few steps away there was a small table with different types of chairs. Four guards in black suits sat there playing cards. Almost hidden between their beer bottles lay a bunch of keys.

The impressive thing, however, piled up behind the guards.

From the ceiling hung a huge birdcage, which shimmered almost reddish in the light of the chandeliers. Although connected to the ceiling by an enormously huge chain, the cage stood on four poles as well and thus towered above all other things in the hall. The poles and the stairs leading up to the cage in steep steps also glimmered as if the setting sun was shining on them.

"I would say," Usopp whispered in a hoarse voice, "that this is the birdcage Rayleigh spoke about."

Sanji nodded silently. From their point of view, the bottom of the cage almost completely concealed the interior, making it impossible for them to see if Zoro was really in there.

"We have to pass those guys and get up there," he muttered to the two others, paying attention to not be heard by the guards, who chatted with each other and emptied their bottles slowly, but they were neither loud nor drunk.

"Can't you use your skywalk?" Usopp whispered equally softly.

"I don't know if they can see me if I'm too high. Nami-swan, how far does..."

"That won't be necessary," the navigator interrupted him, pulling both men with her towards the double-door gate.

The further away they moved from the cage, the better they could look inside. As they reached the door, they turned around.

Now Sanji could see their crew's swordsman.

Zoro knelt on the floor of the cage; chains led from the bars down to his body, apparently tying hands and feet. Two more chains led straight to his neck, which was trapped by a broad bronze ring.

Directly under Zoro's head was a small pedestal on which he could put his head to rest, but he didn't, although another chain connected the ring around his neck directly to the ground - strained enough to almost tear apart - keeping the swordsman on his knees, he refused to place his head down on the pedestal. Despite the bent posture, he held his head as high as he could.

"Oh, God," Nami whispered, shocked, but Sanji had to admit that he was impressed. No matter if one liked the Marimo or not, that idiot was no one to give in that easily.

"Wow," Usopp next to him stared through his sniper googles, "if I wouldn't know any better, I'd say Zoro's staring right at us."

"So, what's the plan now?" Sanji decided to ignore the comment.

The navigator pointed to the guards. "I can see two bronze-colored keys. I assume that these are the ones for the cage and for the chains."

"But how do we get them? We need a distraction," Sanji mumbled.

Carefully, they scurried back to the guards.

"If that's all we need…" Usopp pulled out his oversized slingshot and loaded it with two small green pills. "Green Star: Rafflesia."

The seeds disappeared somewhere in the darkness between the many boxes.

Within seconds, a strange smell spread through the warehouse.

The bewildered guards got up and started talking louder. Sanji nodded at the sniper, only to realize that Nami was no longer standing between them, but the next moment he saw her on his left.

Suddenly, they heard enraged noises coming from the direction of the double door, followed by agitated voices. The door was ripped open and another guard in a suit entered.

"The straw hats are coming! Up in front with you guys!"

One of the guards grabbed the bunch of keys and rushed down the aisle.

"You both come along, you stay here and watch the list objects."

Two of them followed the ordering one, while the biggest one was left behind.

The three pirates hid within the shadows, although no one could see them. The door slammed close after the guards and casually Sanji strolled behind the remaining one. Only one kick was needed to send the man to the ground, unconscious.

"Mirage Reverse." Nami dissolved her magic trick.

"What are we doing now? The guy took the keys with him." The sniper was still whispering as quietly as before, like he expected more guards to show up.

"Did he now?" Smirking like an evil queen, the navigator pulled out the two shimmering keys.

"Oh, you're just incredible, Nami-swan!"

"Like I said, kleptoma... Ouch!"

Nami cuffed Usopp's ears.

"Now let's get Zoro out of here."

They nodded to each other unanimously before running off.

The stairs were narrow, just wide enough for one person and incredibly steep.

Sanji always took two steps at once and it almost felt like he was running up a ladder.

"What are you guys doing here? Where is Rayleigh?"

"What a great welcome! You're making it a joy to save you, Marimo."

The swordsman sounded rough, yet Sanji couldn't really blame him.

Finally, they made it all the way up.

"You have to get lost," the pirate in the cage growled. "Where is Rayleigh?"

"What's wrong, Zoro?" Usopp asked confused, while Nami tried to unlock the cage's door. "Don't you want to be saved?"

"You shouldn't get involved, damn it."

"Considering that you are chained to the ground in a cage, you are quite demanding here, Marimo."

"Shut it, cook."

After a few seconds, the door slid open and Sanji followed the navigator inside.

Only now Sanji realized how huge the cage was. Easily several people would fit into the cage in next to the prisoner. The whole crew would find enough space here without standing on each other's toes.

"Why don't you just free yourself?" He grumbled quietly. "Not like some frail chains are enough to stop you."

Zoro only snorted sneeringly as an answer. It was strange to see him kneeling on the floor, it felt wrong.

The navigator crouched on the floor next to him.

"Anyway, we'll break you out now," she declared in an absolute tone.

Behind the gate the noises grew louder.

"Guys, we should hurry up," Usopp urged. "Rayleigh said that he can give us ten minutes at max to get back to the submarine with Zoro."

"What?" The swordsman hissed angrily, while Nami loosened the first of his shackles. "Are you guys crazy?"

"Would you calm down?" Sanji was not intimidated by the other. "You're the idiot, who didn't tell me anything, disappearing with some stranger without explaining anything."

"I told you that..."

"That we should go to Rayleigh, yeah got that. But whether it suits you or not, you belong to the straw hat crew and we take care of our problems ourselves."

Nami loosened the chains around Zoro's right ankle.

"You shouldn't interfere," the swordsman insisted. "I made sure the contract would keep them from getting at you, but if you try to rescue me now, it's..."

"We know." Nami remained surprisingly calm. "Rayleigh explained that you only agreed to that contract to cover us, and that's the reason why he wanted to go on his own to help you."

She was now dealing with Zoro's wrists.

"But you know our captain, whoever messes with one of us, messes with all of us."

"Exactly!" Usopp agreed, even though his knees were shaking.

Suddenly the doors ripped open again and a horde of hunters poured in.

"Take off the chains!" Zoro commanded.

"You sure? You seemed to like it here." Sanji stated mockingly. The other couldn't even look at him from his position.

The sniper jumped over to the stairs and started firing at their enemies.

"There are so many of them!" He yelled in panick. "Didn't Rayleigh say there were only a few rarity hunters."

"Yes, concerning that," the swordsman on the ground murmured, "it seemed a few things have changed. Now take off those chains, Nami!"

"I'm trying," she frantically replied. "The key doesn't fit. I'm not getting the ring off!"

"What? There were only two damn keys made of bronze!" Sanji cursed. "One for the cage and one for the chains."

"If they won't work on the ring, try the chains!" Zorro gnarled. In the distance, they could hear Luffy's loud laughter. They had to stop him from entering the storage room under any circumstances, the omnipresent seastone would weaken him too much.

Meanwhile Zoro had placed both of his hands on the ground, lifting him up and pulling his head as far away from the ground as possible. The chain seemed like it was about to tear apart, but it didn't. Nevertheless, Zoro was barely more than few inches away from the small pedestal.

With two silent clicks, Nami was able to loosen the two chains on the top side of the ring.

"That wasn't the plan!" Usopp complained, still keeping the guards at bay. "We should be gone long ago when they come in."

"Yes, obviously that didn't work," Nami replied with a slightly irritated undertone, as she lay halfway under, halfway above Zoro and tried to undo the ring.

"Let me just kick the chain off," Sanji declared, taking a step towards the kneeling swordsman.

"No, Sanji!" Nami looked at him seriously. "Don't!"

"Why?!"

She just shook her head and concentrated on the shackles again. In sheer desperation, she pulled out the cage key.

"It fits!" She shouted enthusiastically, and a quiet click echoed through the cage.

The next moment, the chain rattled to the ground and the swordsman got on his feet. To Sanji's astonishment, however, he still had the broad reddish shimmering ring around his neck.

"None of the keys fit the ring," Nami explained hastily, letting Sanji help her up.

"It's fine." Zoro swiftly stretched himself, his voice a single growling thunder. "Where are my swords?"

"Um..." Those present exchanged views. They really hadn't thought about that part.

"Doesn't matter. I can't fight them anyway."

"What?" Usopp sounded horrified. "What do you mean by that?"

"Didn't Rayleigh tell you anything?" It was strange how Zoro talked to them, even sharper and colder than usual. "I have signed a contract with Joudama, agreeing that I cannot defend myself against them."

"Oh." Now Sanji understood. "True, you must obey her until her father comes, right?"

The swordsman replied nothing.

"That means you can't even fight them?" Nami asked.

"I can't do anything actively against them, and if Joudama gives me a command, I have to do as I'm told."

The other three exchanged a serious look. It seemed that this devil fruit was much more powerful than at first thought.

"Well, so that's how it is." Sanji knocked his toe-cap against the floor. "Just stay behind us and leave the fighting to us."

"Tze."

He regarded the other. Zoro looked different than usual. Even harder and more unapproachable than Sanji was used to. His lips were a thin line and his unharmed eye seemed unusually emotionless. He was not calm, as usual, or controlled, rather the contrary; he seemed to be a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment. But Sanji didn't know what would happen as soon as he exploded.

Lighting a cigarette, Sanji stepped next to the sniper, who had successfully defended them so far.

"Okay, in which direction?" He asked Nami behind him.

"Plan B should be active by now. If we don't make it out in time, Franky and Brook should get the submarine back."

"Then all we have left is the main exit."

For a second, Sanji let his eyes wander over his comrades.

He was used to protecting Usopp, he would defend Nami at any time with his life, but Zoro... He recalled that fight two years ago, when they had wanted to protect the badly injured Zoro, and in the end Zoro had sacrificed himself anyway.

The swordsman met his gaze at eye level. His face said nothing, there was no twisted grin, no faint smile, like usually before a fight. Slowly, Sanji doubted that this man was still the Roronoa Zoro he knew. But Sanji would worry about that later.

So he was the one to show a false grin and nodded at the other. This bailout appeared to be so simple, not a problem, so why did everybody feel so tense?

Sanji ran down the stairs, followed by Nami, right behind her the grim face of the swordsman. Usopp, guarding their back, was the last one.

Sanji couldn't remember that the swordsman had ever been in the middle position of such a formation - the safest place in a fight - but they had no choice right now and although Zoro seemed anything but happy about them showing up, he seemed at least to understand that this was the best solution at the moment.

They rushed through the partially defeated mass of suits and quickly reached the large double-door gate.

Behind the gate a similar picture of what they had left behind greeted them.

The pompously equipped entrance hall was covered with unconscious men and women, and everywhere were shards and holes in floor and walls. The reception desk was smoothly divided in the middle, like it had been cut with an overly large butter knife.

"Where is everyone?" Usopp came to halt next to Sanji.

If they had won, where were Luffy and the others?

That they had lost was ruled out, after all, the distraction squad included not only their captain, Robin, and Chopper, but also Rayleigh. These four together had to be invincible.

"Come on," Sanji murmured, waving at them, "let's keep going. Standing around here is not an option."

Nami nodded approvingly and the swordsman was already moving forward again.

Sanji and Usopp pushed the winged doors open and now they knew where the others were.

The forecourt between the main building and the small pier was not much larger than a spacious marketplace, but it had turned into a real war zone.

The fog of earlier was slowly lifting, so that the large shadows of several ships could be seen in the water, as well as another smaller distant scheme, which probably belonged to the Thousand Sunny.

Suddenly, a cannon ball slammed into the wall of the house right next to them and they all took cover.

"I thought they weren't fighters,"" Nami said angrily. "So why do we have to fight?"

"Sorry my dear, it seems that the Korekutas have evolved more than I expected." The cannon ball turned out to be Silvers Rayleigh, who emerged between the rubble and knocked the dust off his clothes. "They're not very strong, but their weapons have some…"

He paused. A gentle smile swept over his lips and Rayleigh shook his head slightly.

"You always get in trouble, don't you?" Then Rayleigh rushed a few steps forward and ripped Zoro into a warm embrace. Screams echoed over the battlefield. "I always have to get you out of some mess."

The swordsman did not return the hug but grabbed the other man by the shoulder and held him an arm's length away.

"Why did you take them with you?" Zoro gnarled between gritted teeth. "I told..."

"Have you ever discussed with your captain?" The former pirate didn't seem particularly impressed. "He's a bigger bullhead than you are and that goes for the whole crew. So instead of giving me a talk, we should get lost for now."

Sanji disagreed silently, suspiciously eyeing as the two men talked to each other.

"Why run away?" He asked nonchalantly. "We are clearly stronger than these rarity hunters. Shouldn't we teach them a lesson, so that they don't come after us ever again?"

In the background, huge legs suddenly emerged from nowhere and trampled enemies to the ground.

The Dark King exchanged a quick glance with Zoro and then shook his head.

"No, we have to run."

Then he turned towards to the swordsman.

"Joudama still has you under her control, right?"

The green-haired man nodded.

"Get the ring off of me," Zoro coolly ordered.

"Okay." Rayleigh put both hands on the bronze ring, but then grew stiff.

"I can't," he muttered.

"What?" Zoro took an angry step towards Rayleigh, so that they stood right in front of each other. "Just take it off!"

"I can't, the spikes are too sharp and cut too deep. If forcibly removed, I will hurt you."

"Then do it!" Zoro growled.

"No, it could kill you."

"I don't die that easily!"

The others followed the tense discussion of the two men, forehead against forehead.

"It's dangerous. You're not strong enough. What if..."

"Silver!" The swordsman's voice echoed all over the place, and for a fraction of a second the world seemed to freeze.

"Take. It. Off!" Each syllable was a threat. "Understood?!"

Sanji exchanged a quick glance with Nami. He knew that Zoro was intimidated by only a few things but talking to the former vice-captain of the Pirate King in this way was nothing but a sign of stupidity.

Rayleigh turned his gaze away and bit his lower lip.

"Fine," he said seriously. "But not here. We need to reach safety first."

Zoro took a deep breath, but then he nodded before turning to his crew members.

"Then let's go."

Now the swordsman ran right next to the Dark King. Sanji followed him shaking his head.

This man was not Zoro. Not the one he knew. Something about him was different. He was tougher, more uncompromising, more ruthless. How he had behaved towards the former pirate had been presumptuous, almost arrogant.

That, too, did not suit Zoro. Certainly he was some bigheaded muscleman, who played almost too much attention to pride, but basically he paid a certain respect to every human being. Sanji wondered why he was behaving so differently now.

They rushed across the battlefield, straight towards the Thousand Sunny. It turned out that Zoro had not exaggerated. Whoever attacked him, he only seemed to be able to dodge, but Sanji noticed something else.

He knew Zoro's zero-sword style, basically how he fought with his fists, but the movements the other showed now were mostly completely unfamiliar to him. Moreover, almost in complete harmony, he moved with the Dark King. Whenever Zoro dodged an attack, Rayleigh was right there to eliminate the attacker.

It had to be a form of Kenbonshuko Haki that the former pirate could guess Zoro's movements and thoughts, it had to be.

From their right Robin joined them, followed by Chopper. Only Luffy was still raging in the front yard.

"We should hurry up," the archaeologist told them. "Soon the other ships will arrive."

"Yes, let's get lost," Usopp agreed.

"Oh no, please stay."

As if hit by lighting, Zoro stopped.

Few meters before them, a figure appeared in the fog.

A tall man, much larger than the others present, approached them. With each step, his silver walking stick tabbed on the floor. The man wore a white suit with a silver tie, as well as a white cape; the buckle decorated with the emblem of the world aristocrats. His silver hair was tamed in a long ponytail.

"Finally, after all these years."

An almost warm smile illuminated the stranger's features as he stopped and spread his arms.

"Welcome home, my number one."


	6. Chapter 5

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had some wonderfull christmas days and enjoyed the precious time with your loved ones (yes, I know they can be a handfull sometimes, but we chose to spend time with them, so there has to be a reason for that, right? ;-P )

Well, technically it's still Friday in my time zone, so I'm super on time I'd say (The good thing about children brithday parties is that they start and end early^^)

There will be no more chapters in 2019, but that shouldn't surprise you as I will update next weekend, which is already 2020 (Gosh, I feel old right now^^'). So I hope you all have a great start into the new year and celebrate the beginning of it the way you enjoy it. Don't feel the pressure that you have to surpass all your faults this upcomming year but take the chances of a new beginning.

Hope to see you next year ;-)

Sharry

* * *

Chapter 5

-Sanji-

"Welcome home, my number one."

Fear.

If Sanji had to describe the swordsman to his right with one word, it would be fear, in its purest, most rudimental form. Plain fear.

The man in front of them spread his arms wide open like a father approaching his lost son.

But Zoro had not only stopped running forward, no, he stepped back, pale, his lips shivering, his jaw trembling, his hands clenched to shuddering fists.

He seemed smaller, not only younger and more vulnerable, he seemed to fall together within himself, crouching down, like a wild animal, which got cornered and knew it was going to die.

Before Sanji even noticed what he was doing, he took two steps in front of his crewmate, almost in sync with the former vice-captain of the Pirate King, who also barred the stranger's way.

"Muchinushi!" The former pirate barked at the newcomer.

"Rayleigh!" The contrast could not have been greater.

Korekuta Senior smiled at the Dark King like an old friend, whom he finally met again after years. The world aristocrat let his cane draw a flowing line through the air before pointing the top at Rayleigh.

"It's nice to see you again. Our last meeting was ages ago. But I have to admit that time wasn't merciful to you."

Sanji let his eyes slide to the right. The Dark King seemed angry, yet he sounded as thoughtful as ever, almost relaxed, when he replied: "You on the other hand haven't changed much."

Korekuta bowed deeply with his arms outstretched.

Sanji took that moment to glance over his shoulder.

Zoro didn't seem to notice him and Rayleigh at all. All he did was stare at the man in white, and although Sanji could not see anything dangerous at all about the rarity hunter, Zoro's behavior alone was enough for Sanji to distrust the stranger.

"Well, you reap what you sow." Muchinushi was still smiling gallantly while giving a glance at all people present. "I am very impressed by all your energized temper, but the question is whether this skirmish is really necessary."

He clamped his cane under his left upper arm and put his hands together like a charming salesman. "Let's go inside and have a nice cup of tea."

"We had a deal, Muchinushi!" Rayleigh took another step forward. His hair seemed charged with electricity.

"We never had a deal." Suddenly the friendly face demolished itself in a dark mask and the world aristocrat angrily stared at the Dark King. "You and I never had a deal, Silvers Rayleigh. You are nothing, an unimportant filler word in the world's history. I don't do business with the average."

The rarity hunter walked towards Rayleigh and looked down on him. His height forced the former pirate to look up.

"I signed a contract with your captain at that time. He was outside the norm, grade B, almost A I would say, but do you see him here?" Now Korekuta smiled almost as kindly as before, but his eyes seemed bigger now, as if he were talking in vain while he lifted both hands with his palms facing the sky. "Gol D. Roger is dead and therefore our contract is invalid."

"Get out of my way, Korekuta!" Rayleigh didn't seem to be impressed by his words, but he gritted his teeth. "I will not allow you..."

"Silence!" The tall man interrupted the former pirate like a king his servant. "I didn't come here to talk to you."

His eyes no longer regarded Rayleigh but looked past him and Sanji, exactly at Zoro. Almost tenderly, the stranger stretched out a hand.

"I'm sorry, my number one. You must have suffered terrible fears."

The swordsman behind Sanji did not move an inch, but Sanji noted Rayleigh next to him pushing his jaw back and forth before staring at the cook. Sanji had been wrong. Apparently, Rayleigh had lost his temper, pure anger written on his face.

"But it's over now. I came to bring you home. After all these years, you will finally be safe again. Finally, back among allies, reunited with your family."

"That's enough!"

Rayleigh lifted his arm to strike a blow, but the next moment Korekuta casually pulled his cane out of his arm pit and knocked it against an invisible wall right in front of the former pirate.

Although untouched the Dark King flinched before flying away faster than a bullet. Far behind the wooden circus tent, he disappeared into the clearing fog.

"Rayleigh?!" Nami and Usopp yelled in unison.

Sanji moved a bit to the right, now standing alone between this man and his crewmember. Gulping heavily, he met the stranger's eyes; Sanji doubted he could take care of Korekuta on his own, and he obviously couldn't rely on Zoro.

"Oh." Now the stranger looked at Sanji for the first time. "Interesting. Vinsmoke Sanji from the Kingdom Germa, grade A, isn't it?"

His words shocked and confused Sanji, but the man didn't seem to notice as he started inspecting the other crewmembers.

"Nico Robin, the last devil of Ohara, also grade A. The Cat Burglar Nami, natural talent in navigation, grade E. Usopp, son of Yasopp, sniper, grade F." Each time, he pointed his cane at the person he listed. "And Tony Tony Chopper, user of the human-human fruit, list number 4,052."

The stranger took an excited breath and rubbed his hands.

"Of course I know who is fighting over there; Monkey D. Luffy, user of the gum-gum fruit, grade B. And the two left on the ship are Cutty Fram, Cyborg, grade C and of course the skeleton Brook, list place 1.128. It seems like you surrounded yourself with interesting objects."

"_Objects_?" Nami repeated, placing her hands against her hips. "We're no objects! We are human beings. Living, breathing beings."

The man in white smiled, laughing softly, and turned to Nami.

"For you, my dear, as a grade E, this might be true; a simple woman with one or another ability. You are nothing more than a plain human being, but not every one of us is burdened with such insignificance."

Once again, the navigator impressed Sanji as she took another step towards the stranger, apparently not in the least insecure.

"We all have rights! We all have our own will! You can't just declare someone as your property just because it suits you that way."

"And this is the part, where you are mistaken, my dear." The world aristocrat still smiled at her kindly.

"I doubt you can understand it, but I will take the time to explain it briefly. Most people are almost equal, uninteresting, average, something like you or Rayleigh." He shrugged. "But some living beings are much more valuable since birth or increase their value over the course of their lives. These qualities can, in case of doubt, be of importance for the general public, and therefore it is their calling to serve the world. By making thoughtless mistakes, these objects could diminish their value or even destroy themselves. That is why it is our duty, as guardians of our earth, to take care of these things."

"Tze." Nami shook her head. "Bullshit! I know monsters like you, who believe they can own someone just because they find the person to be useful. But you don't get Zoro!"

The stranger's smile grew.

"My dear, you seem to misunderstand something."

He walked past Nami and stopped just in front of Sanji, his white-clad chest right in front of Sanji's eyes.

"Didn't you tell them, my number one? How mean of you. Now I understand all the turmoil. Of course, if I were to have a grade B person or less kidnapped for no reason, that would be debatable. But the thing is." The stranger grabbed Sanji by the shoulder and swept him to the side. Sanji lost his footing, slamming directly against Usopp and dragging him down to the ground as well. "You belong to me!"

Sanji jumped back up. A multitude of hands helped him up as his crewmembers went into fighting position and shouted at Korekuta.

Zoro had not moved an inch, the rarity hunter barely stood a step in front of him and looked down at him almost lovingly, while the swordsman stared only straight ahead, his eye almost empty.

"Don't you dare touch him!" Chopper yelled behind Sanji, transforming into his giant figure.

"You shouldn't threaten me, number 4,052."

But the stranger didn't even look up.

Sanji knew he needed to act, knew he had to do something, but it felt like he was disrupting an intimate meeting. He couldn't move. Something was wrong here. The stranger's behavior simply did not match Rayleigh's anger, and even less Zoro's indescribable fear.

"After all this time finally reunited." Korekuta sounded gentle. "You don't need to be afraid anymore."

He raised a hand and held it just inches apart from the swordsman's face.

"Didn't you hear me? Let go of hi... Uff!"

Chopper had rushed past Sanji and wanted to attack the stranger, but just like Rayleigh, Korekuta fended him off with his staff without even touching him, without even looking at him.

Sanji heard Robin shouting after Chopper, but his eyes were caught by the stranger.

"Look at me." Zoro did not move. "You don't need to be afraid, my number one."

Korekuta bent down slightly.

"Look at me."

Very slowly Zoro raised his head, the smile of the stranger grew.

"Very well. Oh, look at you. These barbarians have treated you badly. That scar, oh no, how dare they damage you like that."

Disapprovingly sighing, the rarity hunter shook his head.

"But don't worry, my number one, there's nothing we can't fix, so..."

"Gum-Gum-Jet-Pistol!"

The ground between Korekuta and Zoro broke apart and both men stumbled away from each other, Zoro barely holding himself on his feet while the stranger landed on his butt.

"Luffy!" Some of the crewmembers shouted unanimously as the captain of the straw-hat crew came to a stop between Zoro and the stranger. Steam rose from him and he grinned mischievously.

"Oh, this was fun," he laughed loudly. "Hey old man, thank you for letting me fight with your mates. Had a blast."

Korekuta rose to his feet, his smile only a hint as he patted the dust off his white suit.

"An extremely lively young man, I have to say."

Luffy, however, completely ignored him. He beamed at Zoro.

"Good to have you back."

The swordsman straightened up and looked at his captain, not saying a word.

"I would like to conclude this conversation now." The rarity hunter didn't even seem angry, but this time Sanji knew what to say.

"There is no conversation," he decided blunt, "and there is nothing to conclude. You kidnapped our crewmember and we got him back. Don't mess with us."

While he was speaking, Luffy turned to the stranger and cracked his fists. Together with Luffy, Sanji was sure they could beat this guy.

The rarity hunter nodded conciliatorily.

"I understand that our intervention can cause inconvenience and I apologise for the fact that my daughter Joudama has not provided an adequate compensation." He pulled out a white checkbook from the inside pocket of his jacket. "I'm certain we'll find a financial solution" He took out a silver pen as well.

"Usually market value and list place are used for price determination. Of course, I will also take the bounty into account." Extensive lines were drawn by the stranger. "All in all, I can offer a sum of..."

"We don't want your rotten money!" Nami had drawn her weapon and pointed it at the rarity hunter. "You can't measure a life with money."

Still smiling, Korekuta put his checkbook away.

"If that is the case, I can only repeat my daughter's offer. I agree to scratch list numbers 4,052 and 1,128 and downgrade the remaining crewmembers to grade E."

"Our counter-offer!" Luffy was still grinning as if it was a game. "We're leaving now. All of us!"

Korekuta laughed lightly. "I won't allow it."

"Well, Sucks to be you." Usopp didn't sound nearly convincing, but he folded his arms and grinned as well. "But our captain is right. We don't do business with human traffickers. Zoro stays with us."

The stranger slammed his cane onto the ground, a shockwave shook the island.

"I won't allow it!" The smile was gone. The earth was still shaking. "You won't get my number one!"

"He's not a number!"

For a second, the world seemed to slow down. Out of nowhere, Rayleigh appeared right next to the world aristocrat. Half in the air he turned around his own axis and at the next moment he kicked the stranger in the back with full power.

The world picked up speed again and Korekuta flew through the air like a white arrow.

"Okay," the Dark King shouted at them. "We really should leave now."

Loud approval came from the straw-hat pirates and they ran off. Luffy grabbed Zoro by the wrist and rather dragged him along than Zoro actually running on his own.

"Will they follow us?" Usopp cried in panic.

"Didn't you see that guy?" Sanji replied. "I don't think we're going to get rid of this madman so quickly."

"We have to leave first." Nami sprinted in front of them.

Behind her ran Robin. She had been suspiciously calm all the time, but Sanji decided there was more urgent things at the moment. She seemed healthy and unharmed, and only that mattered.

For a moment he wondered if the others had noticed what this rarity hunter had said about him, but then he decided that this, too, could wait until later.

They had almost reached the Thousand Sunny. The fog had become lighter and so Sanji could already see the two figures behind the railing.

"There you are!" Franky shouted down at them. "We were about to follow you. It's super boring here on the subs bench."

"Oh, as I see, you've been successful." Brook dropped the stepladder down to them. "Welcome back, Zoro."

The crewmembers climbed up the ladder one by one. Sanji made sure the ladies were first before it was Usopp's turn.

"Pull yourself together!"

Surprised, Sanji turned around.

Zoro was still standing there and Rayleigh shook him quite roughly.

"We can't afford something like this right now!"

Usopp, who was hanging just a few feet above Sanji, looked down at him with big eyes.

"Are you listening to me at all?"

The cook answered the sniper's gaze with a shrug. He also had no clue what was wrong with the Marimo.

"Come on guys, we need to leave!" It came from above.

Just as Sanji was about to turn to the stepladder he heard a silent slap. The Dark King had punched the swordsman.

"Rayleigh!" Luffy stood next to him, obviously not sure if he should be surprised or furious.

Zoro stumbled two steps back, holding his jaw. Rayleigh stood in front of him with a serious face.

"Better?"

Zoro shook his head slightly, stretching and relaxing his jaw before finally nodding.

"Was that really necessary?" Zoro sounded rough as ever.

"Obviously it was," Rayleigh replied, "you didn't respond at all."

The swordsman just snorted and looked around.

"We got everyone here?" He asked, acting like his usual self again. For a second he looked at Sanji and then his gaze slid up to the ship and back to Luffy.

"Chopper," he whispered softly before shouting, "is Chopper up there?"

Confused, Sanji looked around. Chopper had been blown away by Korekuta. In Luffy's direction. He had somehow expected that Chopper had joined them at the same time as their captain had.

"He's not here," Robin said, worried from above, already back on the ladder to climb down.

"Zoro wait!" Rayleigh grabbed the other by the forearm as he headed back towards the building. "What are you planning to do?"

"What does it look like? I'll get Chopper back," the other growled.

"You?" The Dark King asked mockingly. "You're the reason we're in this mess and as soon as Korekuta appears, you're ain't no help at all. Do you think I'll let you run back?"

"And do you think you can give me orders?"

The swordsman swirled around and approached the other, so close that they almost stood forehead against forehead.

"Zoro!" Luffy placed a gentle hand on the tense shoulder of the other.

"Get on board." Then he grinned. "I'm going to fetch Chopper and then we'll leave together."

For a second, Zoro simply observed Luffy, then he nodded and turned to the Sunny, not taking another look at Rayleigh.

"Do you need help, Luffy?" Sanji asked seriously, moving aside so that his favorite enemy could climb up the ladder, which he did without hesitation.

"No, I'm fine."

"We should hurry," the former pirate grumbled almost as rough as the swordsman. "I don't know how long it will take Muchinushi, but he will hunt us down."

"Got it." Luffy raised both thumbs up and ran off.

Seconds later, everyone else were back on the lawn at the deck of the Thousand Sunny and Franky patted the swordsman's shoulder.

"Good to have you back, bro."

"I hope Luffy hurries." Nami folded her arms. "This guy was scary."

"Rayleigh." Zoro turned to the Dark King. "Take the ring off, now!"

Only now did Sanji notice it again. He had almost forgotten that their swordsman was not completely freed just yet.

Shaking his head, the old man stepped forward.

"We need the..."

"Muchinushi has the key!" Rarely Sanji had seen the swordsman in such a furious mood. "And that's not going to change, no matter how long we keep discussing. So, get it off!"

The tension was almost physical.

"Hey guys, can't we just use some tools unlock it?" Usopp's idea was almost as weak as his voice.

"No," Rayleigh muttered miserably, "there's an explosive device covered by the outer layer. If I take the ring off..."

"We've talked about it; I can't fight like this."

Both men looked at each other seriously as if they were having a wordless discussion; after several seconds had passed, Zoro seemed a little more controlled, and at some point the Dark King nodded.

"Fine, sit down."

Zoro also nodded and followed the instruction.

"Shouldn't we wait until Chopper is back?" Nami asked anxiously. "In case something goes wrong."

"We may not have that much time," Rayleigh replied, putting both hands on Zoro's neck ring. "If Korekuta has the key, he can also control the explosives within as soon as he's close enough."

"Wouldn't he hurt Zoro?" Usopp lurked over the former pirate's shoulder to look at the neck ring. "He didn't seem like he would willingly do anything that might hurt Zoro."

"The explosion would not face inwards." It was Zoro who answered coolly, now looking almost the exact way Sanji knew him. Quiet, a bit too bored for the current situation and unreadable.

"Ready?"

The ring hit the wooden wall, circled around a few times and finally fell to the ground. It went faster than Sanji had seen. He was almost annoyed that after two years of training, he could still hardly spot Rayleigh's movements.

For a second, they all looked at the metal ring.

"Shouldn't it explode?" Franky asked.

Robin walked over and picked up the ring. Now the deep, sharp spikes like thorns inserted on the inside of the ring were visible. They all shimmered in a crimson color.

"It's still intact," she said, lost in thoughts.

"Does it hurt, Zoro?" Nami sounded extremely concerned.

Sanji looked back at the swordsman holding a hand against his neck as small runlets of blood dripped down his neck.

"Just a few scratches, nothing to worry about."

The Dark King dropped to the ground beside Zoro and laughed softly.

"Phew, I surprised myself. I thought I was going to behead you. Luckily, everything went well."

Now, for the first time, a small grin crept onto the swordsman's thin lips.

"Thanks man."

"Okay." Nami stood in front of the two. "I think it's time for you to tell us what the hell is going on, Zoro!"

It became deadly silent.

"What's going on here and why the hell is this Korekuta chasing you, Zoro?"

The two men on the ground exchanged a serious glance before Zoro shook his head.

"I don't think that..."

"I don't care what you think!" The navigator took another step forward. "It took us two long years to get reunited again and then you just disappear without a word. Leaving Sanji with a cryptic message that only Rayleigh can save you and then what just happened..."

She took a deep breath.

"Chopper is still out there somewhere, with Luffy. We could have avoided all of this here, if we had known that someone was coming for you." Zoro opened his mouth, but Nami wasn't done yet. "We were worried! Damn it! I thought we'd been through this often enough. If the past catches up on one of us, it affects the whole crew. So why? Why do you think you need to handle it on your own?"

Nobody said anything and no one dared to look at the navigator.

"Did you want to protect us? Because Chopper has just taken some heavy blow, just for the record. Since when do you decide such..."

"Nami." Usopp interrupted and put a hand on her shoulder. "This is not the right time to..."

"Now is the right time!" She slapped Usopp's hand away and grabbed her left shoulder. She had tears in her eyes and dug her fingers deep into her flesh.

"We are a crew, Zoro, but you didn't trust us. Instead you only trusted Rayleigh, why? And this... this man..."

"Enough." Zoro stood up, a cool expression on his face. Blood still dripped down his neck, seeping into his coat.

Sanji noticed Robin standing next to him, her arms firmly folded, an unreadable expression in her eyes.

"You should tell them the truth," Rayleigh advised calmly as he stayed seated on the floor.

Zoro stared to the ground and shook his head.

"No," he whispered, "I can't do that."

"Why not?" Brook sounded surprisingly gentle. "Do you think it could ever be the same again? Even if none of us asked, you know very well that you have to tell us the truth sooner or later. Otherwise, we cannot protect you or ourselves from people like Korekuta. And even if we trust you, are you still able to trust that we wouldn't doubt you?"

For the first time since they were on board, Zoro made eye contact with a crewmember. He took a deep breath and finally nodded.

"Fine, I will tell you everything you want to know. But only when everyone is back. Only after Luffy and Chopper have returned."

The navigator nodded: "I can live with this."

She turned to the rest of the crew.

"Okay, I want us to get the Sunny ready for departure. It might be that we have to leave immediately as soon as Luffy and Chopper show up." She gave each crewmember a task to take care of, before she turned to Zoro. "You stay here where I can keep an eye on you."

The green-haired man raised an eyebrow.

"Do you think I'm going to run away?"

She grinned slightly but did not respond. Then she looked meaningfully over to Sanji and nodded slightly to the swordsman, who fell back into the grass.

Sanji understood, rolled his eyes slightly, but nodded. Lighting a cigarette, he leaned against the railing, while Nami hurried after the others.

"Are you my babysitter?" Zoro grumbled mockingly.

Sanji enjoyed his cigarette.

"Blame yourself. If you hadn't just disappeared, Nami-swan wouldn't be so worried about you."

From the corner of his eye, he could see Robin watching them from the wheel; she still carried the neck ring along. Just looking how casually she was holding it made Sanji shiver.

The swordsman snorted but didn't reply anything.

For a few seconds, the three men remained calm, then Zoro dropped on his back and folded his arms behind the back of his head.

"You were right," he muttered to Rayleigh, "the past will catch up with all of us at some point."

The former pirate smiled slightly, despite the tension.

"You know I'm always right. But I did hope you had been given a few more months."

"Why?" asked Sanji, aware that he was interrupting in a private conversation.

Zoro looked at him, his unharmed eye only half-opened. He seemed like his usual self, but there still seemed to be a certain tension in him Sanji wasn't familiar with.

"Out of selfishness," he grumbled just before closing his eye. "Because as soon as you know everything, I will leave the crew."

"What?!" Sanji lost his cigarette and approached the swordsman. "What are you talking about?!"

"Sanji." Rayleigh raised both arms appeasingly. "Please calm down. He's too stubborn, it won't help to count your chickens before they hatch."

"What a bad pun" Zoro murmured, before the furious Sanji grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up into an almost sitting position, nearly dry blood dripped down Sanji's hands. Zoro looked at him, not even slightly impressed.

"Let me go," he commanded calmly.

"I don't think so," Sanji growled. "Not before you give me an explanation."

"I already said, not before Luffy and..."

"I didn't mean that!"

Sanji let go of the other and at the last moment Zoro could catch himself before hitting his head against the ground.

"Why him?" Sanji nodded over to the Dark King. "Why do you trust him more than us, your crew?"

For a moment, this one eye widened and the swordsman stared at Sanji in surprise before he looked away.

"That's not true," he muttered after a quick gaze at the former pirate. "It's just that I've known Rayleigh for quite some time. He knows things from my past that I'd rather forget."

This honest answer surprised Sanji, and he was almost ashamed of how he had just approached the other.

"How do you know each other." he asked more serene now, sitting down on the grass as well. Zoro could at least tell him that, couldn't he?

"He lied and took advantage of me," Zoro said with a soft grin.

"What?" Rayleigh turned to him. "No, I just didn't tell you the whole truth because otherwise you would have killed us. I saved you!"

The swordsman leaned back on the grass, folding the arms behind the back of his head, and closed his eye.

"Roger saved me, you lied through your teeth."

"Wait what?" Confused, Sanji looked back and forth between the men. "Roger died more than 24 years ago. When the hell would you have met him, Zoro?"

"Uff." Zoro scratched the back of the head. "Let me count, it must have happened somewhat 60 years ago."

"What?!" Those two idiots were probably just mocking Sanji.

"Not quite," Rayleigh corrected Zoro. "It's only been 57 years."

"No!" Sanji almost yelled. "But then you would have to be – I don't know - 70 years old or something."

Rayleigh smiled politely at him. "He's three years older than me."

Several times Sanji gasped for air and wanted to say something, but he didn't know what. It had to be a joke.

"Well, you've certainly aged well," he eventually mumbled.

Zoro grinned slightly and was about to reply, but suddenly the ship starting shaking. The next moment their captain hit the mast with full force.

"Luffy!" They shouted unanimously.

He crashed to the ground, not moving.

"What happened?"

From afar, a loud voice was heard: "Deal of Nature!"

Out of the blue, the earth began to shake.

"We have to leave!" Nami yelled from the bow side.

"What about Chopper?" Usopp yelled, rushing to Luffy.

Before anyone could answer, they all forgot to breathe. The island in front of them rose from the water, fyling higher and higher, leaving behind a huge crater within the ocean. But the water did not flow in as if it was stopped by an invisible wall.

The island continued to rise up, and up there, on the edge of the island, Korekuta Muchinushi stood and held Chopper over the abyss.


	7. Chapter 6

Happy new year everybody!

I hope you had a great start into 2020 and I wish that this year brings you all the joy you deserve.

The next chapter will be out upcomming weekend, friday or saturday (depending where you live and how fast I'm done with my other work ;-P)

See you soon

Sharry

* * *

Chapter 6

"Damn it!"

Zoro jumped up next to Sanji and stared up to the sky.

There, several hundred feet above them, an entire island floated in the air.

On the edge of the abyss, hard to recognize but still clearly visible, stood Korekuta Muchinushi and held the struggling Chopper above the nothingness.

Several people appeared next to the rarity hunter and looked down at them.

"This Joudama has improved quite a bit," Rayleigh remarked, getting back on his feet as well. He sounded almost like he was enjoying himself as he praised the rarity hunter.

"What the hell is he doing?" Sanji growled.

"Chopper!"

The crew members stared up helplessly.

The sea around them was restless, the Sunny and the remaining ships of the rarity hunters dancing back and forth in the enraged waves, but the huge crater below the flying island didn't fill with water, it was almost as if an invisible wall was keeping the water masses away.

The foreign ships tumbled, apparently abandoned, across the sea near the pirates, but none of them noticed as they stared upwards.

"Where are my swords?" Zoro asked angrily.

"In the cabin," Usopp replied, panicked.

The swordsman stared back and forth between the door to the men's bedroom and the island in the sky, but at the end he stayed, clenching his fists.

"Luffy, you need to get up there, now!" Nami ordered.

"Luffy's not getting anywhere anytime soon," Franky replied drily, "got hit straight on his head."

"What about you, Robin?"

"No, I can't keep up my wings long enough for that distance."

"Brook?"

"I'm sorry, but even though I'm very light, I can't fly."

Desperate, Nami looked back and forth.

"Sanji, what..."

She interrupted herself when a _ringringring_ came from the depths of the Sunny.

"The Den Den Mushi," she muttered softly, caught in thoughts.

"The Den Den Mushi!" She then yelled, jumping up the stairs before running into the galley. Seconds later, she came outside with the Den Den Mushi.

"It's Korekuta," she said composed. "He wants to talk to you, Zoro."

"No!" Rayleigh grabbed the swordsman by the upper arm, who was already on his way to the navigator. "You know that he just wants to blackmail you. You must not listen to him."

For a second Zoro looked at the former pirate, and at that moment Sanji wondered if what those two had just told him was actually true. Silent doubts that it had been more than a stupid joke slowly grew within him.

"He has Chopper," was all Zoro answered, breaking free from the other's grip and walking upstairs.

Almost hesitantly, he took the mouthpiece from the navigator.

"Yes?" he growled, but as hard as his voice sounded, as insecure he looked at the Den Den Mushi.

The Den Den Mushi began to smile almost gently as Korekuta's voice floated across the deck: "Ah, my number..."

"Zoro! No matter what he... Uuuh."

Chopper interrupted the world aristocrats only to howl out painfully.

Sanji stared up at to the figure that had to be Chopper, but it was impossible to say what exactly the stranger had done to their young doctor.

"Muchinushi!" Zoro growled, grabbing the mouthpiece so tight it was close to bursting.

"Now, now, my number one, you know you can call me Nushi."

"Don't you dare hurting Chopper!"

The Dark King next to Sanji whistled slightly surprised.

"Are you threatening me?" The voice of the rarity hunter barely changed and yet the swordsman took a step back. This simple question already seemed to be enough to shake up the swordsman's resistance.

"We can end all of this right here and now, my number one." Korekuta sounded a little more affectionate than just a few words before. "Come back home with me and I'll let number 4,052 go unharmed."

In the background, the young doctor whimpered.

For a second, Zoro took a deep breath, Rayleigh was already rushing towards Zoro and Nami, but Nami was faster, with ease she stole the mouthpiece out of Zoro's hand and gnarled into it: "I thought we already had that discussion? We don't negotiate about lives!"

For a second, no one dared to breathe. But then they all looked at each other frantically. Nami, in particular, had panic written all over her face. It was obvious that she had not planned to say this.

Then Rayleigh quietly coughed and suddenly Zoro stared directly at Sanji and the cook recognized the look immediately. Questioning, he raised an eyebrow, but nodded.

The swordsman also nodded, albeit without the usual evil grin, and then looked down to the Dark King. Nami seemed to notice this, as she watched them with pinched eyes.

"How rude to just interrupt a conversation." Korekuta laughed softly. "I'm not sure how long I can keep tolerating this behavior."

Zoro and Rayleigh were still looking at each other.

"Usopp," the former pirate mumbled, without interrupting his and Zoro's eye contact, "can you spot Joudama?"

Surprised, the sniper looked to the former pirate before staring up at the island again, but this time with his googles on.

"Yes, I can see her," he muttered, slightly confused.

"Take her as the target," Rayleigh calmly commanded, "and on three you shoot her."

"What?" Usopp yelped slightly too loud.

"I want to talk to my number one again, now." Korekuta was unaware of their silent conversation.

"Just do it," Franky growled, kneeling behind Usopp and holding onto Luffy, who was swaying back and forth beside him, babbling something incomprehensible.

Zoro tonelessly whispered the words _on three_, before finally nodding to Nami, who swallowed briefly.

Rayleigh grabbed his sword.

"I don't think that's possible," the navigator replied coolly to the Den Den Mushi.

"Now listen, you naughty..."

"One," the Dark King whispered.

"... worthless girl! I was patient with you long enough. Give me my number one or I'll let your crewmember fall to his death."

"Two."

"Have a nice day."

Shortly Nami bit her lip, then she just hung up.

"Three."

Suddenly, everything became very slow, as if this short second was expanding over time. Next to him, Sanji could see Rayleigh striking his sword and sending a huge compressed air slash at the island. At the same time, Usopp yelled something and fired his bullet at the rarity hunter. Somewhere up there, Chopper screamed incomprehensible curses as Korekuta let go of him.

Sanji, however, focused on what was happening in front him, raising his left leg slightly while the swordsman ran towards him.

He knew this course of movement, they had already executed this tactic countless times and no matter what happened, Sanji knew exactly what Zoro wanted from him. After all, they were a well-rehearsed team.

Almost light-footed, Zoro landed on his leg.

"Enjoy your flight!" With these words, Sanji sent the other up into the air, shooting him at the island like a bullet.

For a moment, Sanji thought Zoro would pull an arm out of his coat, but there was no reason for Zoro to do something that useless.

The shock wave reached the island, but nothing happened.

"Shouldn't something happen?" Brook asked into the deafening silence.

"Wait for it," Usopp murmured, still staring into the sky in a highly concentrated manner. "And... Hit!"

Out of the blue, the island combusted into thousands of pieces and began to fall. Loud screams and the bursting of stone echoed down to them. Almost immediately the sea around them started to rumble. Giant waves chased down the crater, pulling the Thousand Sunny along despite being anchored.

"We are drawn in." Brook sounded almost amused, but his skull rattled with panic.

"Don't worry," Franky replied, "such tiny waves don't impress our lovely Sunny!"

"The island is falling too fast!" Nami yelled. "It will bury Chopper and Zoro beneath itself!"

"Usopp!" Sanji, who could not identify the swordsman or the doctor, turned to the sniper.

"I can't see them anymore!" He replied equally loud. "They have to be somewhere between the rubble."

The first rocks crashed to the ground and into the sea. Dust and water scattered around.

Huge waves chased back towards the small ship and pushed it away again, leaving the pirates desperately trying to grasp something to hold onto, only the Dark King stood on the lawn, as if the restless sea didn't bother him at all.

The disastrous site came into view and was hidden by the wild waves over and over again.

Robin rushed to the railing and crossed her arms.

"Cien..."

"Everything is fine, my dear." Rayleigh put a hand on her shoulder, showing a broad grin. "You don't need to worry."

Sanji looked at the other in doubt, then turned to his left in surprise, where suddenly Luffy stood, still slightly shaking.

"Zoro is great." Luffy's voice was as cheerful as ever.

"You're all right?" Sanji asked as they watched the spectacle in front of them.

"Sure, just a bit of a headache." The captain seemed as carefree as ever.

In front of them, a huge cloud of dust, dirt and water covered the island's remains.

For an eternity, nothing happened.

They all watched the disturbed sea, looking out for Zoro and Chopper. But between the huge rubbles and the spreading dust cloud, no one could see anything.

The sea grew calmer, but the Sunny still rocked threateningly.

Suddenly Rayleigh laughed softly and Usopp shouted: "There! I can see something! There's something coming closer!"

To Sanji's confusion, however, the sniper didn't point into the water, but directly at the sun, which was little more than a shimmering ball behind the dust cloud and the gentle fog.

But then he saw it, a shadow partially concealing the sun, but the blinding light made it impossible to see more than a rough figure.

With each second, the shadow came closer and its outlines became clearer.

The first thing Sanji could make out were the wings, being brightly white they seemed to almost glow in the fog as the shadow came closer.

Was that an angel?

The air around the figure seemed more alive, the cloud swirled wildly up and down, blurring and sharpening the contours over and over.

In disbelief, Sanji recognized a green shimmer that turned out to be a familiar moss green.

He kept shaking his head. That couldn't be possible.

"Is that Zoro?" Usopp whispered in denial.

For a moment, Sanji was certain that the wings had to be Robin's special ability, but the five seconds were long over and when the figure finally left the cloud behind, Sanji could see the bright white feathers without any doubt.

Just like the man they belonged to.

The green hair was indicative enough, still Sanji doubted everything he knew up until now.

It had to be Zoro, the way he held little Chopper in his arms, the broad shoulders, like a soldier, never loosing tension, the dark green coat waving carelessly around his hip.

Of course it had to be Zoro, yet it was impossible.

Even if ignoring the angelic wings – which already made it impossible for that person to be Zoro – there were still these strange ornaments covering the left half of his body.

Like an aesthetic tattoo, countless black lines entwined over the left half of the face, down the neck, over shoulder, arm and chest, before being swallowed by the Haramaki.

And something about his eyes were off, something Sanji couldn't see from the distance.

Headshaking, Sanji watched as the man, who was so clearly their swordsman and yet had to be a stranger, came closer.

Light-footed, his boots touched the railing, and now Sanji could see that his eyes had nothing humanlike left.

The unnaturally bright green of the iris filled the entire eye, shimmering in different shades. The pupils were oval like a cat's and glided hurriedly from left to right. Sanji had difficulty to determine who or what he was looking at until the moment those strange eyes stared at him and Sanji froze up.

"May I introduce." Rayleigh beamed with pride and joy. "The Last Dragon: Angel of Death Bronze."


	8. Chapter 7

Hello everybody,

watching Volleyball over here, I have the latest chapter for you with finally some answers ;-)  
Thank you all for your lovely comments and kudos, I'm really gratefull for them. Have a great weekend^^

Like this week, the next chapter will probably come out ucomming Friday, if I have to work late, Saturday morning.

See you next week ;-)

Sharry

* * *

Chapter 7

"May I introduce: The Last Dragon, Angel of Death Bronze."

Sanji had no idea what was going on.

"The Devil's Hellhound," Franky whispered breathlessly beside him.

Somewhere Sanji had heard this name before, but he understood nothing.

_The Last Dragon?_

Dragons were fairytale figures, winged reptiles, but he knew they might still exist. So why the Last Dragon? The guy on the railing was a man with huge white wings perhaps and strange eyes perhaps, but obviously no reptile, no monster.

_Angel of Death Bronze?_

Why did this name sound so strangely familiar to him? Why did he feel like he knew that name? Why did he associate it with his childhood, why did it remind him of his siblings?

Suddenly he heard his father's voice talking about the Death Angel Bronze.

_The Devil's Hellhound?_

Somehow this title awoke a melody within him, a children's song if he wasn't mistaken. Wasn't there a song, in which the children were supposed to be at home by dawn, otherwise the hellhound would eat them?

Absent, he nodded slightly. Exactly, there was this old song his siblings had always sung whenever his father had spoken about Bronze. It was just a fairytale, an ancient legend, nothing more than a children's song.

The second verse said that children should not play too far away from the village, because outside in the forest the hellhound was waiting for them to rip their heads off and in the third stanza they should not be too loud, because the hellhound was found of noisy children and would tear apart their throats.

And between every single verse there was this chorus, echoing in his head over and over again.

_Listen to your parents, don't be too loud_

_Otherwise the hellhound will take you out_

_Hellhound Bronze! Hellhound Bronze!_

_Behave well or he'll take you out!_

For a second, Sanji was that little boy again, who was not as strong as his siblings, who got teased while the others were singing this song. The melody haunted him, the unnaturally distorted voices of his siblings chanting it, just like the deep voice of his father, who spoke about the Angel of Death's blood.

Then the winged man jumped down from the railing. His heavy boots pounced heavily on the wooden floor and Sanji was no longer the little, defenseless boy.

Confused, he took a step back.

"What the hell does that mean?" Someone to Sanji's left asked as he eyed the person in front of him.

It had to be Zoro, it was the same hair, the same narrow lips, the same worry wrinkles on the forehead. Even the three golden earrings on his left ear. But how did he get those wings, the tattoo? What about those weird eyes and what happened to his vanished scars?

"Rayleigh, could you please open Chopper's handcuffs?" The newcomer's voice sounded almost exactly like Zoro's, only a little deeper and almost echoing, almost not human, if it weren't for this uncertainty, which was hidden in every word.

"Of course." The former pirate passed Sanji and took the apparently unconscious doctor out of the other's hands.

"He's unharmed." The newcomer's statement made Sanji breathe a sigh of relief.

"You did it well." Rayleigh praised calm and gentle, keeping his eyes on the young pirate in his arms. "You saved Chopper."

The other did not respond but looked at his feet.

"Wait, what's going on here?"

"Is it really you, Zoro?"

"I don't understand anything anymore."

"Wow, those wings are awesome!"

"Luffy, don't! Uhm..."

The straw hats' captain had rushed forward, reaching for one of those astonishingly white wings, the familiar stranger had tried to stop him, but had been too late and winced now, not able to move away.

The next moment the wings behind the newcomer's back seemed to contract and growing smaller and then all of the sudden they were gone.

"What the...?"

"How…?"

"Wow, cool!""

The Dark King, who had casually removed the young reindeer's seastone handcuffs, laughed quietly.

"Oh, it's been a long time since your little wings were so sensitive, right?"

Confused, Sanji looked from green-haired man to the former pirate, who is still held Chopper in his arms.

"We should get going." The newcomer almost whispered, his voice hoarse. "Those Korekutas may have other problems right now, but we are not safe here."

"Agreed!" It was Nami who seemed to get a grip on herself first. "We really should be leaving. Take your positions! Franky, a Coup de Burst please."

Seconds later, the ship sailed through the air and Sanji left his position to return to the small lawn. At the mast sat Rayleigh next to Chopper, who had just woken up and inspected Zoro with suspicion, who was sitting in the grass in front of the Dark King.

"Are you sure you're okay, Zoro? They didn't hurt you or anything?"

"I'm fine, Chopper. Don't worry." The swordsman didn't sound nearly as quiet as usual, but he looked like he used to. Nothing was left of the strange tattoo, gone just like the wings, the one intact eye as normal as that of any other. Even his swords were finally back at his hip again.

Zoro looked exactly as Sanji knew him, as he should look like.

The Sunny landed almost gently in the water and strong winds filled the sails, as if Mother Nature knew that they wanted to leave in a hurry.

One by one all the crew members came together, Luffy threw himself into the grass next to the swordsman, the others stood around more or less relaxed.

Sanji immediately noticed that the three older ones from the crew, by name Brook, Franky, and Robin, had taken very defensive postures. They had all crossed their arms and were half-turned away from the swordsman.

Usopp and Nami, on the other hand, exchanged uncertain glances, while Chopper looked bewildered between the tense crew members and Zoro, who highly concentrated grinded grass between his index finger and thumb. Behind him sat Rayleigh and looked at them with a soft smile.

But Sanji wasn't stupid enough to be fooled by it; behind the reflecting glasses, watchful eyes flashed from one crewmember to the next one. The former vice-captain was ready to fight.

Only Luffy seemed absolutely unimpressed while he folded his arms behind the back of his head and exhaled deeply, obviously extremely satisfied with himself and his deeds.

"So Zoro, what's going on here?" Nami didn't sound as certain as she had just a few minutes ago, when she had asked this question for the first time.

"Is it true?" But Robin's icy voice shattered Nami's question with ease. Her voice trembled, as well as her whole body, while she faced the swordsman. Only now did Sanji notice that she was still holding the bloody neck ring.

"Did he say the truth?" She nodded at the Dark King, but her gaze lay relentlessly on Zoro.

He rose carefully.

"Robin," he began in a calm voice, "let me expl…"

"Is. it. True?"

Unusually unrestraint, the archaeologist threw the neck ring at the swordsman's feet. The rest of the crewmembers grew deadly silent. Sanji couldn't recall Robin ever raising her voice. The ring spun around itself for a few times before falling against the heavy boots.

Zoro gritted his teeth and nodded to the ground.

"Yes, I'm Bronze."

_Slap_!

Even before the swordsman could finish the sentence, Robin had rushed towards him and then she slapped him, her face distorted in pain.

"Robin?" Usopp tried to intervene, but Nami held him back.

"Captain!" Robin almost choke on her breath, as if holding back tears, still looking at the swordsman and shaking her head slightly. "Either this... either he leaves...," she said with a breaking voice, "or I will abandon the crew."

None of the others dared to say even a word as she spun around and rushed from the lawn to the bow of the ship.

"Robin!" Zoro tried to chase after her, but out of nowhere Rayleigh stood behind him and held him by the shoulder.

"Let her go. Give her some time to accept the truth."

"What truth?!" Usopp didn't seem as calm anymore as he made big hand gestures. "What's going on here? These guys, this weird birdcage, then... then these wings just now, and... and now Robin? What the hell is going on here? I don't understand nothing anymore!"

Desperately, the sniper looked around, as if one of them had the answers.

"Maybe you should sit down," Rayleigh recommended, "it could be a longer conversation."

Nami, Chopper, and Usopp followed this advice, the little doctor obviously still confused, but Sanji wasn't any less, while he lit another much-needed cigarette.

"No thanks, I prefer to keep standing," Franky replied hostile. Brook next to him, astonishingly, also looked quite mistrusting and shook his skull as well.

"What's going on with you guys?" Chopper muttered.

"Didn't you listen?" Franky murmured, nodding over to Zoro. "You claim to be Bronze? _The Bronze_?"

"Who is this Bronze?" Usopp asked, visibly insecure because of the obvious tension.

"A kid's song," Sanji replied, looking furiously at the others. He didn't understand what this hostile attitude was about, hadn't they just freed a crewmember? Precisely the crewmember who was now antagonized by Franky? Something wasn't right here, both the cyborg and the skeleton actually liked Zoro much more than Sanji himself did and now he had to remind them of that fact again?

"It's just a stupid children's song to scare off brats. The Hellhound Bronze never existed. Just one of many fairytales people have told about the Pirate King."

"Ha!" Franky laughed coldly. "There you can see how much history gets lost within a few decades. Back in the days we were still afraid of the Angel of Death, but look, now he's nothing more than a children's song."

Zoro was still standing almost in the middle of the uneven circle without saying anything, not even looking at any of them, his face a stern mask, showing no emotion.

"The children's song may be the only thing that remained of history, but I remember when I was a little kid, how people talked about the Angel of Death Bronze, the Hellhound from the underworld, obeying only Gol D. Roger. The monster Bronze has destroyed countless islands with nothing more than snapping his fingers."

"Well, now you're exaggerating," Rayleigh grumbled, but Franky didn't bother as he continued: "It's said that the beast Bronze became so unpredictable and dangerous that Roger had to kill him with his own hands in the end."

"That' s a lie!" Suddenly Rayleigh was standing in front of Franky and although the cyborg was much taller, he seemed to shrink under the furious eyes of the Dark King.

"Let me say this once and for all," he hissed in a loud, trembling voice, "no one, not a single crewmember, wouldn't have wanted Bronze in our crew."

Now the former vice-captain looked at each of them.

"He was our crewmember, our friend, and each of us suffered the loss when Bronze decided to leave the crew. So don't you dare..."

"Silver," Zoro pleaded weakly.

"No," the old man growled. "Don't you hear those lies they spread about you and Roger? Don't you care that they twist your history in something you're not?"

Frightened and confused, some of them gasped for air.

The former vice-captain of the Pirate King turned to Franky. "Roger would have died to protect Bronze, I would have died, each of us would have done that. So don't you think he was a monster just because of some old stories. People have no idea who the real monsters are!"

The ship's carpenter swallowed heavily and fell silent.

For a second, nobody said anything.

"So," Nami finally muttered, "you want to convince us that Zoro – our Zoro – is nobody else but the Hell's Trio's last member? The trio that terrorized the world thirty, no, more like forty years ago? The Devil, his Right Hand and his Hellhound?" She shook her head. "Zoro wasn't even born back then, it's impossible."

Rayleigh turned to the navigator and nodded, before looking at Zoro.

"Isn't it time for you to start talking?" He sounded much calmer now than mere seconds before. "You see that they have a lot of questions."

"Yes, could we start with what you mean by _the Last Dragon_?" Usopp threw in, while rubbing sweat from his forehead. "Are we talking about reptiles? Like winged lizards or what?"

"Dragons," began Brook, who also sounded unusually serious, "are nowadays colloquially associated with reptiles, but the term once stood for a completely different breed. They used to be called heavenly people or sky-men."

"You know what dragons are?" Rayleigh asked, quite surprised.

The musician nodded. "Of course, there were still some left during my youth, but I am not surprised that nowadays people hardly talk about them. Even then, only a handful of them were still alive and most people thought of them rather as a myth than reality. Just like fish-men, they were superior to ordinary people and were also considered to be rather violent, the World Government had promised large amounts of money to those, who brought them the head of a real dragon. Instead of bounty hunters, everyone who wanted to make quick money at that time, became a dragon hunter to chase the last living individuals.""

"That's true." Finally, Zoro raised his voice and looked at them, one by one. "Just like the waterly people, the heavenly people were once a mighty folk. But more than 800 years ago, people started chasing my ancestors. When I hatched, there were barely more than a dozen left and these few were all killed during my childhood."

One second everyone was silent, all but the cook.

"Hatched?" Sanji asked, bewildered. "What do you mean by _hatched?"_

He knew this probably shouldn't be his first reaction, a slightly more sensitive question would have been appropriate, but his mouth had been faster.

Zoro looked at him with his eyebrow raised. He did not seem mad about Sanji interrupting the oppressive silence. Almost mockingly he observed the blond, now looking more and more like himself again.

"It's no coincidence that people nowadays think of winged reptiles when talking about dragons," he explained, almost as if it was basic knowledge everybody should be aware of. "Without getting too much into the details, I'd just say that adult heavenly people can transform into what you'd imagine a dragon to look like. However, they are not comparable to the beasts, which are now commonly referred to as dragons."

For a moment, Zoro looked to the side and muttered half-loudly: "After all, these are just brainless descendants of dragons who mated with wyverns." Then he shook himself slightly and said aloud: "Therefor dragons lay eggs that hatch after two years."

"So you hatched from an egg?" Nami quipped. "More than 50 years ago?"

"81 years ago," Zoro confirmed with a swift side-glance to Rayleigh, who nodded reassuring, "but I'm not the last dragon – my former crewmembers gave me that title - because my mother was actually a human being, only my father was a dragon."

"Okay?" Usopp looked just as confused as Sanji felt. "So you're half human and half reptile?"

The shadow of a grin hurried over the otherwise stiff lips of the swordsman.

"Something like that, dragons are shape-shifters, and from a certain age on they can transform into such a reptile. As a hybrid however, I have had different forms since my birth. What you just saw a few minutes ago, that's how I look in my natural form, half dragon, half human. This right here," he put a hand on his chest, "this is how I look like as a human being."

Nami rubbed her hands through her face.

"All right," she muttered, "okay, let's say we believe all that stuff. What happened to you? Why did you never tell us?"

The swordsman sighed.

"It will take longer to explain."

"We have time," Franky replied coolly.

Zoro looked at him and nodded sharply.

"Of course. So, the short version: humans are not made to carry eggs, so my mother died, and I grew up with my father's tribe. His name was Wood, and he sacrificed himself so that I could survive and escape when our tribe was attacked." He kept a straight face, his voice as rational and emotionless as always. "In search of other dragons, I fell into Korekuta's grasp. Dragons have special abilities that the world nobles were interested in, so they captured me instead of killing because as a child I wasn't any danger to them. After twenty years I was able to escape and became..."

"Well, that's not the whole truth," the Dark King interrupted, but apologetically raised his hands as Zoro looked at him seriously, before Zoro continued. "Anyway. Shortly after I fled, I met Rayleigh and Roger, who lied to me about being just like me."

"Oh, come on, I just didn't say we were not dragons."

"You introduced yourself with Silver and Roger with Gold, what else what I supposed to think?"

They glanced at each other for a second. Brook coughed silently and Zoro turned back to them again.

"So, I became a Roger's crewmember and..."

"Then you know what the One Piece is?" Usopp heckled, slamming his hands against his mouth in shock almost immediately. His eyes grew big and it was obvious that he already regretted his question.

Zoro, on the other hand, raised only a finger.

"Just wait for me to tell the story, because no, I wasn't on board on Roger's last trip." Sanji gulped heavily; although Zoro spoke quite matter-of-factly, he sounded somewhat wooden. "As I said, dragons are different from humans, especially when it comes to devil fruits. Those usually have no effect on dragons. However, as I said as well, I am only a hybrid and therefore the exception of most rules. About forty years ago there was a dispute with some other pirates. Me and some crewmembers fought against a user of the Reverse-Reverse-Fruit and he unintentionally cursed me."

"Wait a minute," Sanji muttered, remembering the fruit from the Book of Devil Fruits. "While this fruit can rewind or fast-forward the lifetime of objects at incredible speed, it doesn't work on living beings. A ship can decompose to dust within seconds and metal becomes liquid, but how should that affect you?"

"And if you ever find the answer to this question, let me know," the swordsman replied bluntly. "I don't know why or how, but after this pirate touched me briefly, my lifetime ran backwards and twice as fast. Of course, I didn't notice it in the beginning, but at some point we did realize something was off and after we came up with the idea that it could be because of this devil power, we went after this pirate of course. But no matter what we did, the curse didn't break."

"That means," Chopper, who sat at the mast next to Rayleigh, asked, "that you weren't getting older, but younger and that twice as fast?"

The swordsman nodded: "Within five years I deaged by ten and what had been funny at first and amusing for some, became very annoying at some point, because no matter how much I trained, from a certain age on my body couldn't keep up and I became weaker." Now the other looked back to the ground. "About thirty years ago I left the crew to find a cure and ended up on Ohara, where we still knew allies from our last visit."

"Wait a moment," Franky murmured, now not as hostile as before, "when you say Ohara, you mean Robin's home island?"

Again, Zoro nodded.

"Clover was a good friend of mine, but he couldn't help me either."

"When Roger decided to visit the wide world for his last big journey, he wanted Bronze to accompany us of course, so we visited him on Ohara," Rayleigh continued.

"But I was in a child's body, so I would have been nothing more than a burden," Zoro grunted slightly. "So they traveled to Raftel without me. Instead of me, some of Ohara's researchers went along with them, including Nico Olvia, Robin's mother."

For a second they were all silent, while the puzzle's pieces of different stories were slowly coming together in their heads, then Rayleigh took the floor: "After Roger had turned himself in, I immediately rushed to Ohara, but everything left from our friend was a damn egg." He sounded bitter.

"None of us knew what would happen to the egg through this curse, so I took it with me. I thought it would just dissolve into thin air at some point, but I had no idea." Zoro remained silent. "I must confess that I had almost forgotten about this stupid egg, but two years after Roger's death a screaming baby woke me up."

The old man shook his head.

"So I stumble into the room and there's this baby just lying on the floor. A little human baby in the middle of bronze-colored eggshells."

Sanji tried to imagine the picture and looked at the swordsman. This was how his favorite enemy was supposed to be _born_?

"Of course, I didn't know what to do. I wasn't even sure if he would hatch at all and then as a human? You have to know that he almost never ran around as a human at that time, except when he had to, and sometimes not even then."

Sanji gripped the railing. This story became more and more abstruse and he was getting a headache.

"I was still very actively hunted at that time, like many of our crew, and this was absolutely no place to have a small child with me. Therefor I decided to leave him the East Blue with good friends who knew Bronze's story and had always wanted a child."

"I grew up among humans," Zoro continued, "and had no idea what kind of past lay behind me. I was always just Roronoa Zoro. I knew my parents weren't my biological parents, but I never thought much about it. It wasn't until two years ago that I began to remember. I've never said anything before because I didn't even knew who and what I am."

The rest of the crew members exchanged glances.

"But that's no longer important. I'm going to talk to Robin now and then I will leave the crew."

"Wait Zoro," Usopp threw in and took a step towards the swordsman, but immediately bounced back when the other looked at him coolly. Without anyone else trying to stop him, Zoro went after the archaeologist. The ones staying behind stared at the ground.

"I don't get it," the sniper murmured unhappily.

"Oh Usopp, it's not that difficult," Nami scolded him, obviously irritated, "so actually Zoro is called Bronze and is a..."

"No, I did get that," the sniper mumbled. "But why does Zoro want to leave the crew?" He folded his arms. "Zoro is a crew member like each one of us and I thought our past wouldn't matter anymore, right? Then he's a dragon, so what? Our doctor is a reindeer, our ship carpenter a cyborg, and our musician a skeleton. I don't even want to talk about our captain. So why should it matter who Zoro was in the past or what he is? He's still Zoro."

Sanji nodded approvingly.

He was far from happy with the development, but Usopp was right. They were a crew of misfits, outsiders. So if the Marimo's past provided a few new enemies, then that was just how it was. They had never been stopped by anything such trivial before, right?

"It's not that simple, Usopp." Franky, however, seemed to have a very different opinion. "You may be too young to know what happened back in the days. I don't really care what these dragons are all about – and if they were the most dangerous beasts the world has ever seen – I really don't care what's true and what's not. But as far as Bronze is concerned..." He shook his head. "Sorry Rayleigh, but Bronze is a monster, the children's songs aren't by chance. When I was little, Hellhound Bronze was still considered the worst insult, and the Angel of Death was the most horrifying nightmare, even for grownup warriors. He may have been your friend, but for the rest of the world he was an unpredictable and - above all - merciless danger."

The Dark King wanted to take the word, but Nami was faster.

"Maybe that's all true about Bronze, Franky. But please don't forget, we're talking about Zoro, not just Bronze, and if we're honest, have you ever heard the stories about him or any of us? None of them are flattering."

"What do you say, Luffy?" Sanji moved away from the railing and walked over to the captain, who was still lying on the lawn and had not said anything at all up until now.

"Even if we don't have a problem with it, Robin said she would leave if the Marimo stays. She seemed pretty determined."

The black-haired boy on the ground did not react.

"Hey Luffy, could you...?" Sanji groaned loudly. "That idiot is asleep."


	9. Chapter 8

Here we go again^^

Have fun with the next chapter. I wish you all a great weekend and thank you all for your lovely comments and your favos :-)

If everything goes well chapter 9 will be out next friday again. Thank you for your patience ^^

* * *

Chapter 8

-Sanji-

Now they were sitting there.

Zoro had left them behind only a few seconds ago to talk to Robin alone, and none of them really knew what to do now.

Their captain was still laying on the lawn, cozily asleep. If it wasn't Luffy, Sanji would probably worry that the fight with Korekuta could have been too much for him, but the rubber boy didn't break so easily.

Rayleigh was still sitting behind Luffy at the mast, his legs crossed, watching them with an expressionless look. Sanji felt as if the Dark King had presented them a trial and was now judging if they were passing.

Sanji almost felt like he was nothing more than an uninvolved spectator. Yes, it shocked him how much they had not known about the swordsman. There was this saying that still waters ran deep, but he had always thought of the Marimo being a puddle rather than a sleeping volcano.

That point of view hadn't changed that much, if he was honest. So, the Marimo had a much longer history than Sanji had been aware of. So, he was a being whole stories had been written over. So, it was his name children spread all over the world, knew out of scary stories. So, he had enemies, who even made the former vice-captain of the Pirate King turn pale.

In the end, he was still the annoying Marimo, who spent half the day snoring at the most unbelievable places and the rest of the time training and not doing his chores. He was still the same idiot, who wanted to chop off his own feet to keep fighting, who had been prepared to be killed by Hawkeyes just because of his damn honor. He was still the man, who had wanted to sacrifice himself to save Luffy and also to save Sanji.

Perhaps that's why it was that hard for the cook to understand why the others behaved so strangely. Whoever Zoro had been before, whatever monster he had been, now he was Roronoa Zoro, no one else. The past should not matter.

"Rayleigh," Sanji finally raised his voice, "do you know what issue Robin-swan has with the Marimo?"

"You mean, apart from the fact that Bronze is the asshole responsible for Ohara's downfall?" Franky grumbled roughly.

"Franky!" Nami yelped in horror.

"What? It's true. And just because we're talking about Zoro, it doesn't change the truth."

The cyborg seemed rather irreconcilable. Unlike Sanji, he obviously didn't accept Zoro's past as easily.

"But wait," Usopp said, while counting with his fingers, "if I've calculated correctly, Zoro hatched in the same year Ohara's Buster Call was, and he said that eggs take two years before the dragons hatch. How is he supposed to be responsible for the Buster Call, while being in an egg? Even before that, he had been nothing more than a toddler or something."

Sanji could not hinder a small smile. Usopp wasn't as stupid as he acted sometimes.

Franky blushed slightly. "Well, Tom always said that the World Government only knew about Ohara because of Bronze, so..."

"So, you jump directly to the conclusion that Zoro betrayed the researchers of Ohara? After all, he is the evil one from the stories, right?" Nami replied sarcastically.

"Why would Tom say such a thing if it's not true?" The ship's carpenter defended.

"Because he's basically right," Rayleigh admitted.

"What?" Chopper whispered. "Zoro would never betray anyone!"

"And he didn't," the Dark King agreed. "Overly simplified it's correct to say that Ohara's Buster Call happened ultimately due to Bronze. But it's probably a little more complicated if you take a closer look at the events."

The old man folded his hands in his lap.

"As already mentioned, the three of us visited Ohara for the first time while still being rather young and after Bronze left the crew, he did go back. I would say that outside of our crew, the researchers were one of the few people he might have trusted more or less."

"So, he would probably not willingly betray them," Sanji concluded. "Does he even have something to do with the Buster Call?"

Rayleigh nodded: "Well, I told you that Roger wanted to take Bronze along on his last trip, therefor we visited him on Ohara."

The straw hat pirates nodded listening.

"However, the problem was that at that time we were no longer these unknown pirates from the early days and the World Government became curious why infamous criminals like us were interested in a small researcher island. That's why they took a closer look at Ohara and became suspicious."

Now he looked at Franky.

"So yes, if Bronze hadn't gone to Ohara at that time, we wouldn't have visited him there, and the Buster Call would probably never have happened. Tom was probably right." Rayleigh laughed softly. "Good old Tom, I think he meant something completely different than you might have understood. You know, he totally fanboyed about Bronze when we were on Water Seven and kind of followed him wherever he went."

"So that's why Robin slapped Zoro?" Usopp asked.

The Dark King shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess so. Without us, she would not have lost her home."

"But it's totally not Zoro's fault!" Chopper yelled. "That's really mean, if she blames him."

"You're a bunch of idiots," Nami murmured, before sighing deeply.

"What do you mean?" Usopp looked at her from the side, but she just shook her head and waved it off.

"I have another question," she abruptly changed the subject and looked at Rayleigh seriously. "Korekuta said something about not signing a contract with you, but with your captain. What did he mean by that?"

Surprised, Sanji looked up.

"Is this really necessary now, Nami-swan. Don't we have more pressuring matters to talk about?"

She kneaded her hands in her lap.

"Well, for me it sounded like Zoro had already been chased by these rarity hunters when he was with you guys and Roger managed to get rid of them once and for all." Seeking help, she glanced at Rayleigh. "And I also want Zoro to stay. Whatever's wrong with Robin, we will figure it out, but you've seen how he reacted when this Muchinushi-guy stood in front of him."

She bit her lip briefly before she continued, calming herself again: "Muchinushi seems to be really strong and if he hunted Zoro for so many years, he will probably never stop, so we have to find another way. Otherwise Zoro..." She shook her head and suddenly her voice became a little bit too annoyed and impatient, showing her confident self too easily. "Otherwise, these Korekutas will never leave us alone and it's already more than enough for me that we're chased by the Marine. I don't need an insane world aristocrat as addition."

Sanji wholeheartedly agreed to that. The cyborg to his right one the other hand snorted quietly but said nothing. Brook next to him was suspiciously silent, as if he was caught by deep thoughts.

"But why?" Usopp looked over to Rayleigh. "Why are they so interested in Zoro? This guy called him _his number one._ I mean, he's hardly going to be number one on this weird list, right?"

"Oh, yes, he is." Rayleigh laughed softly.

"What?" Chopper screamed. "I'm number 4,052 and you're telling me Zoro is number one?" He sounded almost jealous.

Rayleigh nodded: "As I said, the list is sorted according to how valuable the listed ones are for the world aristocrats, or Muchinushi to be precise." He remained silent for a second. "As far as I know, the rarity hunters captured dragons so that the scientists of the world aristocrats could study their abilities and, if needed, take advantage of those. They were especially interested in the longevity of the dragons."

"How old can dragons get?" Brook asked, surprisingly after not talking for most of the conversation.

"I don't know, to be honest. Bronze only told me once that Korekuta had captured him because of his blood, among other things. Apparently, humans cannot tolerate the blood of a full-fledged dragon, but by regularly injecting Zoro's blood, a human being can considerably extend their own life span."

"A fountain of youth made of flesh and blood," Franky muttered, shaking his head, "and that's why they're chasing him like madmen? Not like something like that would actually work."

Rayleigh shrugged his shoulders. "Well, Muchinushi is over a hundred years old and his daughter Joudama is only ten-something years younger than me, so I would..."

"What?" Sanji dropped his cigarette. "You want to tell me that this lovely creature is supposed to be an old granny?""

"So I'm an old grandpa for you?" The former pirate asked slightly reserved.

Sanji wanted to apologize, but Nami continued the conversation: "Okay, so we know now why they're chasing Zoro, but the question was, what did Roger do so they left Zoro alone."

Wary Sanji observed Nami. Her face was a mask of objectivity, but her hand clawed into her shoulder and she repeatedly bit her lower lip. He worried about her, almost more than the Marimo. This all seemed to be very emotional for her.

"To be blunt, he made a deal with Muchinushi," Rayleigh replied.

"How?" The only woman present straightened up.

"Well, we've ran into the Korekutas several times over the years and it's been a pretty tough fight every single time. His minions are nothing but cannon fodder, but we knew we couldn't do anything against Muchinushi himself, so we always fled, except for once when Roger stayed stubborn and refused to run."

He did not grin, and his voice lacked the otherwise often present wit. On the contrary, he sounded very sad.

"It's been a fight like few I've seen, and it really didn't look good for us. But in the end Roger was able to keep up with him."

"He defeated him?" Sanji asked.

"Oh no." The former pirate shook his head. "They were pretty much on a par, and neither would have survived the fight. Through a fraud we were able to capture Joudama. But even her life wasn't important enough for him to let go of Bronze. However, he offered the deal to let Bronze be for as long as Roger would live. Presumably he did want to prevent Roger from killing both of them."

"And what did Roger say?" Usopp sounded dissatisfied. "Why accepting such a sick deal? He should have kept fighting!"

"Maybe," the Dark King replied quietly, "but this deal alone had a very high price. Astin and Joe Bloggs died that day for that very deal, so that Bronze could live in freedom for a few years. We had lost two friends in battle. Who knows who would have fallen if Roger had rejected this deal."

He shook his head. "But now Roger is dead."

"And Muchinushi will hunt Zoro down again," Nami ended Rayleigh's sentence quietly.

The old man nodded tired.

Suddenly loud grumble startled them. Luffy, who had been asleep for who knows how long, yawned loudly.

"Urgh, I'm hungry," he muttered, yawning again, before finally opening his eyes.

Surprised, he stared at them.

"What are you guys doing here?"

Unanimous everyone else present sighed.

"Luffy, do you even know what's going on?"

"Yes, of course," Luffy grinned, "Zoro's back and that's the only thing that matters."

Laughing, he jumped up.

"And now I'm hungry! Sanji! Food!"

At first the cook wanted to deny his captain's order, but then he sighed softly and shook his head.

"Maybe that's a very good idea. All of us should eat something."

"To the galley," Luffy yelled, and ran ahead.

"Shouldn't we tell him the truth?" Usopp muttered as he got up.

"Not that it would make a difference," Franky grumbled. "And I don't want to be in the same room when he hears that both Zoro and Robin want to leave the crew."

"Or when he hears that some of us don't want Zoro to be part of the crew anymore," Nami hissed.

"I never said I wanted him to go," the cyborg replied. "Just that it's complicated. You only see Zoro as who he is today and hear what we say about the past, but Brook and I grew up with Bronze or the dragons, it's different."

"Maybe we should drink a cup of tea first, before continuing this discussion" the skeleton proposed diplomatically.

"I welcome that suggestion," the Dark King agreed, and one by one the pirates followed the rubber boy.

On the way up to the galley, Sanji briefly held the navigator back.

"Hey," he muttered, "let's call Robin-swan too. I'm starting to worry. It's so suspiciously quiet over there."

Nami looked at him without the slightest smile.

"You don't need to worry. I think she and Zoro have a lot to talk about with each other. Must have been quite a shock."

"Not only for her, but for all of us," he replied.

"I didn't mean it like that." She shook her head and raised her hands slightly irritated as he looked at her only questioningly.

"You must have noticed it," she said quietly, leaning closer to him.

"What?" He had no clue what she was talking about.

Nami rolled her eyes.

"Didn't you notice that both of them like to spend time with each other?"

"What?" He tilted his head. What was she talking about?

"Yes, when we go ashore, Zoro usually accompanies her. She taught him Mah-Jongg. Sometimes she reads in the crow's nest while he's training."

She made further movements with her hands.

"So?" Sanji asked.

"Oh, Sanji!" She stomped slightly with her foot. "Robin likes Zoro and he apparently likes her too and now something like that happens, of course she's shocked. She probably thinks like Franky about Bronze, or worse, and now it turns out Zoro is that Bronze. I mean, she probably feels desperate and betrayed. It's so hard for her to trust someone, but she trusted Zoro, of all people. And I don't want to know how he must feel, not able to tell us the truth because he thought we would... Sanji? Are you okay?"

He tried to breathe but couldn't and slowly became nauseous. He cleared his throat as the world began to blur. By now he was feeling sick.

"Sanji?! What's going on?"

Nami patted him on the back but he couldn't breathe.

His knees gave in.

"That can't be," he whispered, "Why did it have to be the Marimo out of all?"

Then the world turned dark.

-Zoro-

Heavily he climbed up the steps, left the other crew members behind on the lawn and walked outside the dining room towards the bow.

He took a deep breath as he saw her standing at the railing, she had placed her forearms on the white wood and looked at the limitlessness of the sea. Even from where he stood, he could see that she had been crying; her eyes and cheeks were reddened, and she was still holding a handkerchief in her left hand.

For a moment, he looked carefully at her profile, looking for the words with which he wanted to explain to her what could not be put into words. Then she looked over to him and closed her eyes briefly. But since she did not leave, he decided that she at least tolerated his presence.

Slowly he joined her and leaned against the railing with his back without looking at her.

None of them said anything.

This was basically nothing unusual. They had never needed many words to understand each other. They were very similar to each other, she once had said they were related spirits, whatever that meant. Both were more of a quieter, observant character, and both were willing to consider more drastic ways to protect their friends. Especially before Brook and Franky had joined the crew, Zoro had been grateful to be able to talk to someone whose naivety he did not have to take in consideration for once.

Unlike Luffy, Usopp, Nami, Chopper, even in contrast to the cook, Zoro had always felt different, not necessarily older, but they had always obtained this childlike innocence, which he had lost a long time ago and although he never had been able to explain it exactly, he knew that Robin had understood and that she felt it in a similar way.

But now it was different, there was no wordless understanding, no inner unity.

Both were suspicious people, who could hardly trust strangers, even harder open themselves up to others and communicate with an honest heart. That had been one thing he had appreciated about her. She was one of the few people, who were able to read him.

In the beginning he had disliked it very much, because he had distrusted her. After all he had been able to read her as well, had noticed that she had withheld something from them. But at some point, that distrust had faded away and then eventually overturned into something else.

When she had been the only one in the room to realize that he had been dissatisfied with his training that day, she had offered to take on some of his duties so that he could continue to train. When she had been the only one in the room who had noticed that he had been training continuously for two days, she had sometimes asked him for help with trivial things so that he would take a break. She had noticed when he had slept badly and prevented the cook from awakening him rudely. She had noticed when he had been looking at one of her books and the next morning he would find it on the sofa in the lookout.

If he was honest, he had become accustomed far too quickly to the fact that she could look behind his mask with ease.

But it was the same for him.

He knew when she was hiding grief or insecurity behind a smile, when she drank a sip of coffee to avoid a harsh remark, when she was just staring at the lines of a book with fatigue instead of reading.

And just now he could see that at this moment she wanted to be anywhere else in the world but here on a small ship, where she could not run away.

Not that Robin normally was the type, who'd run away. No, but she had done it when her own past had threatened to catch up with her, and now that his past had caught up with him, he knew that she saw no other option but to flee.

He stared at the wooden wall in front of him, trying to find the right words for the first time in a long time to talk to her.

"I'm sorry about what happened," she said softly. "I shouldn't have slapped you."

He laughed softly and couldn't prevent a crooked grin.

"You could have cut off my head and I wouldn't have minded."

From the corner of his eye, he could see her smiling for a fraction of a second before her features became cold again.

They were silent again and although there was a tension between them - a deep pain - he was glad that she had not left, that she at least gave him the opportunity to talk to her.

But it was much more difficult than he had feared. He had never been good with words and it had never been necessary with her, but now everything was different.

Several times he opened and closed his mouth without even a sound leaving his lips. Shaking his head, he snorted quietly.

"I don't even know what to say," he quietly admitted. "What can I even say? Nothing I could say could explain or even make up for what you had to go through."

She did not respond but continued to look at the sea.

Swallowing harshly, he decided to continue talking, perhaps only to fill this silence.

"I can't change what happened back then and I can't ask you for forgiveness, so I just want to ask you for one thing."

Now she looked at him surprised but also very suspicious.

"Please don't leave this crew." Her eyes grew large. "You've lost your home once because of me. I don't want to be responsible for a second time."

Very slowly she opened her mouth as he continued to speak.

"And you don't need to worry. I knew from the beginning that I would have to leave this crew at some point. That's why I ask you: please stay." Now he looked back at her. "We are both loners, but we are different. You need them."

Robin looked back at the sea.

"And you?" she finally asked.

He laughed quietly. "Oh, I deliberately chose this path. Besides, I have Silver."

He folded his arms and looked up to the sky, watching it slowly growing darker. A long day finally came to an end, and yet he was afraid that it would pass.

Slowly, he wondered if he should go. It was all said, wasn't it? What else was he supposed to say that she didn't know?

It was true that he could not change the past. How many times had he wished during the last two years that his memories were not true, that he was not that other person, this other man from another life. How much he had wanted to be just Roronoa Zoro, that small, insignificant swordsman from the East Blue with a big dream.

Once, long ago, he had hated himself for his human side and now he wanted nothing more than to forget the last dragon, the death angel Bronze.

But at the same time, he could not forgive himself for having such thoughts. It seemed to him like he was betraying all that had ever been important to him. His tribe had not died, so that he would deny his inheritance. His father had not saved him, so that he was ashamed of what he was.

But the guilt weighed heavily. His deeds from another life and his sense of honor today were worlds apart, and he could only hope that his former vice-captain was right, that he would be able to make peace with time going by.

"You know what?" Now Robin also looked up to the first shining stars, her eyes a shimmering reflection of the sky. "You're wrong. I don't give... I don't blame you for the Buster Call." Her voice trembled, but she continued to speak steadily. "I have spent my entire life figuring out exactly what happened on Ohara and I know that Bronze - no, you - have sought refuge and that the researchers of Ohara have welcomed you voluntarily and with open arms. The World Government is responsible for the Buster Call, no one else. Not you, not the inhabitants of Ohara, not even Roger and the archaeologists he took with him. None of us could do anything about it, it was just an unfortunate chain of causal relationships."

Zoro closed his eye and let her words echo within him, remembering the faces of those who had lost their lives due to the Buster Call. So many people had died in the last twenty years, and he hadn't even remembered them.

"And yet," Robin almost whispered, "and yet the name Bronze alone fills me with so much anger and despair. Why Ohara? Why our small island out of all? Why did you have to come to us? If you hadn't been there, Roger would never have drawn attention to us."

Quiet tears ran down her face.

"If you hadn't come, my mother would have never left, and no one would have died. It is not your fault and yet..." She shook her head and pressed a hand against her mouth. "And yet you are the reason that Ohara was destroyed, that they all died, that I lost my family, my homeland. You're the reason for that and I'm just supposed to...?"

She did not finish the sentence.

"How shall I ever look you in the eye? How shall I ever forgive you?" He remained silent and asked himself exactly the same. "Tell me, Zoro, was there any reason? Or did you just come to Ohara by chance?"

Slowly he lowered his gaze back down to the wooden wall.

"Would it make a difference?" he asked hoarsely. "That wouldn't change what happened."

"It makes a difference to me," she whispered softly into the night sky.

For a long time, he looked at her from the side, wanted to understand why it was important to her, and yet he did not. Quietly sighing, he turned back to the wooden wall before nodding: "Well, the truth is, I didn't accidentally land on Ohara."

Now her eyes were back on him, but he stared stubbornly ahead.

"In fact, I would never have thought of going back there on my own."

He shook his head slightly before adding: "I don't know how much you know, but back then I was looking for a way to cure a curse I was under. A curse that weakened me and could have probably killed me."

"I know Professor Clover mentioned something like this."

It was almost like always when they talked to each other, and yet quite different.

"When I reached the island of Ishira in the West Blue, I met an old acquaintance of Ohara. Did you meet Radiata?"

She nodded quickly.

"I have read countless dissertations from the famous researcher Professor Lycoris Radiata and she was a good friend of Professor Clover."

"But have you ever met her?"

Questioningly, she tilted her head.

"Liz was an impressive woman, but she was often in an incredibly nasty mood and with her fire-red hair she always looked like she was on fire when she got angry."

He laughed softly as he recalled seeing her again after all these years, her roaring his name over half the island. Her temperament had been a single force of nature.

"After I told her what had happened, she more or less dragged me to Ohara in chains to find a solution together with Clover." He remained silent for a second. "She and Clover kind of forced me to stay there and because of my condition I had no choice but to surrender to their will."

"Your condition?" she asked. "What was your curse about?"

"The curse of the Reverse-Reverse-Fruit," he said, watching her eyes grow large. "When I came back to Ohara, I was once again in a teenager's body."

Carefully he raised his hands and regarded at them, saw the weals and small scars on his palms and fingers, opening and closing them over and over.

"Clover and Radiata gave me a refuge when I couldn't go anywhere else."

Now Robin looked away again.

"So your time ran backwards?" she asked after a moment. "Instead of ageing, you got younger? Through a devil power's curse you were under?"

He nodded calmly and explained to her what he had previously told the other crew members. After that, they remained silent again.

"You knew my mother?"

He nodded again: "She was one of Radiata's students and a very inquisitive one at that."

"Tell me about her." Neither looked at the other. "What kind of person was she? How did you get to know her?"

For a moment Zoro closed his eye and remembered Nico Olvia.

"I think the first time we met was when we stranded on Ohara, she was almost a child back then and incredibly shy. At that time, Clover wrote a work on lost cultures and followed me around like a limpet, just like she did with Radiata. Whenever the two discussed over some topic, she sat quietly beside Liz, with big eyes, listening thoughtfully, as if she could suck up all the knowledge of the world."

He shook his head.

"Then later, when I came back, she was just writing a thesis on dragons and wanted to know all sorts of things. She was really annoying and even more clingy than Clover. She never left me alone, even if we were doing some tests or I wanted to rest. She was always around and she always spoke relentlessly. She kept asking me questions about the most unimportant things." He laughed softly. "She had become so smart in those few years, so confident. Before, she always hid behind Liz, but as an adult she gave lectures to the whole college. She wanted to know everything, to explore every secret and had grown into an unmatched archaeologist. There was nothing more important in her life than to find out the truth about the lost century... almost nothing."

Now he glanced at her. She quickly turned her gaze away.

"I know you have a hard time believing it, but she loved you. Even during her pregnancy, she only ever talked about you and when you were finally born..." He sighed lightly. "When my crew came and offered her next to Radiata to accompany them, it broke her heart."

"But she did go." Robin didn't sound accusing.

"Yes, she did," he agreed.

"And you didn't."

He took a deep breath.

"And I didn't."

For a long time, none of them said anything. The world around them gradually became darker and the air fresher. Each of them was caught by long-gone times, precious but – oh - so painful memories.

"There was a boy," Robin muttered. "I remember him. He was the only other child within the rooms of the Tree of Knowledge. I know I wanted to play with him sometimes, but he was pretty nasty and mean. Nevertheless, the others had always treated him with respect."

Zoro replied nothing.

"The older I got, the less I saw him, and no one talked about him anymore. They even said that I had been imagining him. But once I saw him in this underground room together with Professor Clover. He sat on the Poneglyph quite unabashedly and discussed the content of it loudly. He scared me. For a child, he sounded far too serious, far too bitter. Like an old man who hadn't come to terms with his age. Once I asked the professor about this boy and I remember exactly how he had bent down to me and said '_Robin, this boy never existed, because if he had, it would mean that some of the lost history would still be alive and that would mean that we would have come much closer to the truth. But since we're not studying the lost century or offering refuge to children, you've got to imagine it.' _I didn't understand what he meant at the time and thought he was just making fun of me."

She looked over at him.

"That boy was you, weren't you?"

He looked away.

"You are the only one who, like me, breathed the air of these books and still lives today." He swallowed heavily. "You are the only one who knew them all, you knew my mother, the Professor, Professor Radiata and all the others. You've been down there; you've seen all this."

She shook her head.

"And then you lie to me? You don't tell me the truth? All this time, I thought... I was alone. Why didn't you tell me?"

He was silent.

"Why Zoro?! You can read it, can you? The Poneglyphs, after all, this was the language of the dragons. You knew my past and you... why didn't you say anything?"

He did not answer directly but listened for a moment to the whispering sea.

"You were happy," he muttered. "After all these years on the run, after all this time alone, you had finally found a home, people to whom you are important to. I should have told you everything, but I didn't want to hurt you, I didn't want to tear open your old wounds again."

For a moment, he hesitated.

"And I didn't want to lose you. I didn't want you to not be able to look at me anymore. I didn't want to be the reason for your pain."

Slowly she turned around leaned her back against the railing as well.

"Some people lie to get what they want," she said calmly, "and others to protect what they hold dear."

She shook her head: "And yet both hide secrets and my dream is to find out the truth. You shouldn't have lied to me, even if it was for my protection."

He nodded.

"So, you can really read the Poneglyphs?"

"More or less. Contrary to what you believe, this scripture is not made by dragons. The language, yes, but dragons could not write. Humans, who were able to speak the dragon's language, have developed this scripture. Clover taught me to read it."

For a long time she said nothing, but then the hint of a smile hurried over her face.

"If I showed you a few notes, could you imagine sharing your thoughts with me?"

Quietly, he laughed: "You know that I am not a scholar. I doubt I would notice something you've missed."

An inner warmth filled his heart.

"But I would feel honored to see your work."


	10. Chapter 9

So this has been some busy week, but I'm glad I was able to bring you the next chapter on time. I hope you'll enjoy it.  
Thank you all for your lovely favos and comments.

Next chapter is planned to be updated upcomming friday, but I can't make any promises as the next week will be even busier than the last one^^'

Have fun!

* * *

Chapter 9

"Luffy, stop it! This is my rice ball. Food will be ready in a minute."

"But you already had two, give me the last one."

"You had eight! Sanji, how long do you need?" Usopp whined from the dining table, trying to keep his last Onigiri safe from his captain.

"Just a few minutes left. I'm almost done," he murmured, rushing back and forth in his galley, "you can set up the table."

"But we never have to do that," Luffy grumbled, who had given up on stealing Usopp's food and stared longingly over to the plate the cook had set aside for Robin.

His captain wasn't entirely wrong. Normally, the table was already set up when the other crew members came to dinner. Either because Sanji quickly did it while cooking or because Robin usually came a little bit earlier to help him.

But today they had all come to the kitchen together and the cook had only been able to save some time due to preparing the appetizer in the early morning.

In a hurry he tried to set up a modest dinner, but the day had been exhausting and he was still a bit overwhelmed. Just a few minutes ago, Nami had tried to explain to him that his lovely Robin-swan might like the grumpy swordsman more than he thought it would be possible, and even though he knew that there might have been more urgent things to worry about, this was by far the most frightening of all.

The navigator, meanwhile, cleared her throat clearly and some of the other pirates got up to set up the table.

"You don't need to help, Rayleigh," she said kindly, "after all, you're our guest."

"Oh, don't worry. I like to make myself useful from time to time."

"Shouldn't we call Zoro and Robin?" Chopper asked, who seemed rather unhappy. "Who knows when was the last time Zoro has eaten something."

"He doesn't conk out that easily," Franky replied with a wink as he put several plates on the table, "unlike our cook, Zoro is quite steady when it comes to women."

"Hey," Sanji growled, but the oversized pot of noodles called for his attention.

Eventually, the food was on the table. Sanji had to admit that he disliked the fact that two of the crew members weren't present and yes, Chopper was right, the swordsman had probably not eaten anything for at least a few days and even though that fairly wasn't enough to kill him, it was Sanji's duty as the ship's cook to ensure that all crew members were provided with the best possible care.

Dissatisfied with the overall situation, he dropped down on a chair next to Nami. Normally he wouldn't sit at the table - as it only offered eight seats - and wouldn't eat until after the meal, but on this day nothing was normal.

"I still can't really believe it," Usopp muttered, seemingly just as overwhelmed as Sanji felt, while Luffy just started eating next to him. "Zoro was on the Oro Jackson, he was part of the Hell's Trio. It's said that the Navy was so afraid of Roger's teammates that those two were the first non-captains to receive their own bounty."

He shook his head. "With such a man on board, we are invincible."

Although Sanji refused to agree to the sniper, he smiled at his statement. Usopp had apparently decided to ignore Zoro's plan of leaving the crew.

"What? Zoro's that strong?" Chopper asked with huge eyes and looked at the former vice-captain of the Pirate King. "Is he really invincible?"

Rayleigh laughed and gladly accepted a mug of beer from Franky.

"He's certainly not invincible. But it is true that Bronze was a fearsome opponent and rightly received his own bounty. Those, who did not know his weaknesses, were doomed before he would even attack."

"Do dragons even have any weaknesses?" Nami muttered. "Fish-men are superior to normal humans in almost everything. Why should this be different for a dragon?"

"Water." To everyone's surprise, it was Brook who replied. "When I was a kid, there was a very common saying that you have to wash a dragon to tame it."

Now Rayleigh broke into loud laughter. "Yes, I remember that one. Oh, how many times have we teased Bronze with that."

"Wait a second, what?" Nami looked doubtful. "Water? Zoro has no problem with water. He's not a devil's fruit user."

"Of course you're right Nami, so let me explain what I know." With shining eyes, the Dark King leaned forward, a wide grin covering his face. "So Zoro, the human you know, is not particularly impressed by water. But dragons - and this includes Bronze - have their own rules."

"They're like devil fruit users," Sanji muttered folding his arms. "That's why the entire warehouse was lined with sea stone. It weakens both devil fruit users and dragons, just like seawater."

The former pirate nodded: "Exactly, I don't know the exact story, but according to Bronze, the ancestors of the dragons protected the crown from the tree of life and fed on its fruits, giving them special abilities. The legend says nothing about it, but I think we can assume that these were devil fruits."

The others exchanged astonished glances.

"I can't speak for the dragons, but I know that just touching seastone or a single drop of water burns Bronze. The older he got, the weaker the influence of the water became, but especially at a young age..." He shook his head. "Roger once accidentally threw him in a bathtub – long story - and then he had to stayed in bed for three days."

Rayleigh laughed softly. "Actually, it wasn't funny at all, but looking back now... So, if you wanted to beat Bronze, all you needed was a spray bottle filled with water, or just seastone or bronze."

"Bronze? Why that?" Chopper chirped in curiously.

"Well, let's say, since dragons are powerful beings, nature has created a balance on its own. The stronger a dragon is, the more sensitive he or she is to the environment. The eggshell of each dragon is made of something else. With Bronze it was an alloy of copper and tin and accordingly nothing is as dangerous or even deadly for him as bronze."

Sanji swallowed heavily, remembering the neck ring Rayleigh had freed the swordsman from.

"And I thought this Korekuta just liked Zoro's name," Usopp muttered sarcastically, apparently thinking about the giant bronze birdcage as well.

"But wait," Franky disagreed. "You say that bronze hurts Zoro in his dragon form just as much as seastone or water? So why is he called Bronze? That's totally insane, then everyone knows his weakness right away."

The Dark King shrugged his shoulder. "The dragons had their own culture and they just did it that way. For what reason you'd have to ask Bronze."

"But it's not a problem for Zoro," Nami said thoughtfully. "It only seems to hurt him when he is in this other form, right? But then he just turns back into a human and he's good."

"Although it's true that it doesn't hurt him as human, it's not possible." Rayleigh started eating again. "As long as he is in contact with bronze, seastone or water, he cannot change his shape. A neck ring plus chain and he is as helpless as a fish without water. Has sometimes caused us some real problems. Especially because he couldn't stand his alter ego at all."

„Oh."

The dinner had taken on an unusual depressed mood. Except for Luffy, of course, who continued to fill his bottomless belly.

"Well, keeping that in mind, but aside from that," Sanji muttered, looking at Rayleigh seriously. "How strong is he really? I mean back then, before he became a child again due to the curse. How strong was he?"

The former pirate smiled slightly.

"I never beat him," he admitted, "and I would say that he certainly surpassed me in terms of fighting power and determination, but he was a terrible strategist and always wanted to get things to go his way, which caused him some problems."

Again, Sanji found it difficult to breathe. How could he keep up with someone who could even compete with the vice-captain of the Pirate King?

"But we're talking about the Bronze from the past, aren't we? Because no matter how strong and unconquerable he could be as a dragon, so weak he was as a human being. He could barely fight as a human, let alone use Haki. Even at his best, his human part was clearly inferior to the Zoro we see today."

Well that didn't help Sanji at all to feel better.

"But from what I have just seen, I would say that it will take him a few more years to reach his former peak form as a dragon." He was still smiling. "And of course, I'd be excited to find out how he looks full-grown."

"Full-grown?" Once again, the crew members exchanged uncertain glances.

"Oh yes, dragons aren't grownup before the age of 40 and only then begin to develop their true power. As I said, like fish-men, the dragons have quite different potentials than we humans."

"You just want to tell us that Zoro is still a teenager?" Nami looked confused.

Rayleigh laughed softly. "Just don't let him hear that. We mocked him with that too when he first told us; in fact, we made fun of him with no matter what. But I think among dragons he would even be seen as a child being just twentyish."

Now some crew members smiled, but Nami became pale, although she didn't respond.

"And you don't have anything to say about all this, right?" Usopp asked his still guzzling captain with a raised eyebrow.

Surprised, Luffy looked up, but then he grinned.

"I didn't listen, what's it all about?"

"Zoro, you moron!" Nami told him. "Did you listen to anything at all?"

"Mhm," the straw-hat boy nodded, "Zoro is very strong and can grow wings and if we're honest, wings are really cool!"

He nodded as if he were in a serious sales pitch.

"So, you didn't get anything. Why doesn't that even surprise me?" Nami sighed heavily and ran her hands through her hair. Then she began to initiate the straw hat into the necessary information.

"So if he looks different, Luffy, you can't throw him into the sea, do you understand that?" She concluded a multi-minute talk that the rest of the crew used to finally eat something.

"Oh Nami, don't worry," the young captain grumbled and waved it off. "Everything will be fine. You're always too anxious."

"Yes, because you're my captain," she murmured dryly, but leaned back.

It was at this very moment that the door opened to the hospital room, which had another door to the bow of the ship. Robin entered the galley, followed by the swordsman.

The mood, which had just begun to loosen up, froze instantly.

Sanji took a deep breath. It didn't take a psychic to see that Robin had cried, her cheeks were rosy, and the light put a slight glimmer on her face. He kind of wanted to kick the Marimo against the next best wall, but if he was honest, the swordsman looked even worse than the archaeologist. As he came in behind Robin, he stopped for a moment and looked at each of them. Like often, his face was unreadable, yet he looked even more distant than usual.

"Hey Robin, Zoro! Finally, you've already missed half of dinner!" Luffy greeted the two newcomers with noodles falling out of his mouth.

Immediately Sanji jumped up and offered Robin his chair. "Do you want a coffee, Robin, dear?"

"That would be very kind of you, Sanji." With a polite smile, Robin settled down next to Nami, but her smile faded as quickly as it had shown up.

She seemed tired, but who could blame her after such a long day.

"Zoro, sit down with us," Luffy shouted, still with full cheeks, as the swordsman simply dropped down on the sofa at the window due to a lack of free chairs.

"No need to," the swordsman grumbled, "I'm not hungry."

Sanji brought Robin a cup of coffee and looked disgruntled over to his favorite enemy. Wasn't the Marimo aware that his behavior wasn't helpful? How could the sceptics among them understand that he had nothing in common with the monster from the stories, when he was as dismissive as ever?

He hadn't eaten anything for at least a day and a half, and as a cook, Sanji couldn't approve it.

"Don't be like that, Marimo. Get the chair out of the hospital room and sit down. After all that was a captain's order, wasn't it?"

The swordsman glared at him, while Luffy and Usopp agreed loudly. But then Zoro stood up quietly grumbling while walking into the next room and coming back, pulling the office chair along. With a dark face, he fell on the swivel chair between Rayleigh and Luffy, leaning back and arms folded.

The boy with the straw hat grinned largely and the Dark King showed a slight smile as well.

"As always, you are in an excellent mood, _Zoro_."

The swordsman glared at the old man.

"Just shut it, would ya?"

Rayleigh grinned wider. "Oh, stop that act. I see exactly how nervou... Ouch!"

The old man's forehead smacked straight against the edge of the table.

Dishes rattled and his half-empty beer glass trembled ominously. All the crew members froze as the Dark King straightened up, a murderous expression in his eyes, the crooked glasses dangling from his left ear.

Zoro sat next to him, looking like he hadn't moved at all, his arms folded, his eyes closed.

"Bronze!" Never before in his life Sanji had heard the former pirate growl that gravely.

"Tze." The swordsman clicked his tongue quite unimpressed and picked his nose with his little finger.

"You're up to a fight?" Rayleigh turned towards the other one, his forehead still reddened.

"Against an old man? Please, I got some decency left." The Marimo showed a nasty grin.

Nami glanced at Sanji almost in panic. She seemed to think the same as he did. If things would go on like this, the two would sooner or later start a physical dispute, and thinking about the previous conversation, it was questionable whether the Thousand Sunny would survive this.

"Oh, it's really stupid of you to irritate me," Rayleigh grumbled now, but he didn't sound as furious as before. "Especially considering what stories I could tell about you."

"Hmm?" The swordsman half-opened his eye again.

"Yes, for example when we had to teach you how to swim. Do you remember how you and Wolfram fell down the waterfall and you thought you were drowning in knee-deep water? You screamed like a little kid."

Sanji suppressed a laughter behind the back of his hand, while some others spluttered loudly, Nami giggled quietly and even Robin couldn't suppress a smile.

"You can't swim?" asked Usopp, chuckling.

"Of course I can swim, you idiot!" The swordsman murmured with bright red cheeks.

"He was 28 years old when we had to teach him. During those previous four years he had almost drowned regularly, but it had taken us eternities to convince him. Seagull had even bought extra swimmies for him."

"What?" Now the room was filled with laughter.

"Silver!"

"What are you complaining about? You wanted it to become personal."

Apologetically, the old man raised both hands and stood up.

"Truce? I get you something decent to drink. What kind of high-percentage drinks do you guys have?" Almost innocently smiling, he turned to Sanji.

"Beer is fine," the swordsman murmured while straightening the bent glasses again.

"Oh, really?"

For a while it was unusually quiet at the dinner table. By now most of the plates were emptied and an extremely satisfied Luffy rubbed his swollen belly. The other crew members, however, were hardly able to establish a reasonable conversation, despite numerous attempts.

The swordsman always tried to dodge any dialog if possible and answered only in single syllables, his gaze mostly fixed on the beer mug in his hand. Sanji meanwhile had begun cleaning up and took a long glance at his friends. In the past, the mood had rarely ever been so depressed.

"Is everything okay between the two of you?" Chopper asked at one point quite innocently, looking back and forth between Robin and Zoro.

Both shared a surprised gaze.

"Chopper let those two deal with that on their own. We shouldn't interfere," Nami tried to pour some oil on troubled water before another storm would rise.

"It's alright, Nami," Robin replied with a friendly smile, turning to Chopper. "You know, Chopper, some things aren't as easy as they seem on first glance."

"But it's very simple!" The young doctor disagreed, sipping on his over-sugared iced tea. "We know now about Zoro's past and isn't it like with everybody else's past, that...?"

"Chopper." Without even raising his voice, the swordsman silenced the youngest of the crew. After a moment, he looked up from his beer glass and met the reindeer's surprised look. "Just because things are simple for you it doesn't apply to everyone. Everyone has a right to have their own opinion."

Sanji could hardly believe his own ears. He wanted to say something, but it was Brook, who had been so silent lately, who spoke.

"Zoro, may I ask you a question?"

The probably two oldest people in the room looked at each other. This idea was still absurd for Sanji.

"Did you know that Chopper and I are on that list?"

For a second, Zoro's facial features froze. He obviously had not expected this question. But the very next moment he was just as calm as always.

"No," he replied. "Before Joudama told me about it, I had no idea."

"If that's the case," Brook mumbled, stirring in his tea, "how long did you think you could flee from them? You went with Korekuta's daughter only because of us. What would you have done if we hadn't been on that list?"

"But Brook," Nami muttered, taking a cup of coffee that Sanji handed her, "what about these hypothetical questions? Things are now the way they are and 'what if...' does not help us."

"Despite that," the skeleton continued, "Korekuta will return. Rayleigh told us he wasn't going to let go of you back then, so he won't now, so what were you originally going to do?"

Zoro did not respond, but simply looked at his crewmate.

"Zoro?" Chopper asked anxiously.

"I understand." Brook nodded slightly. "So, you just let yourself be captured because of us."

Then he got up, an unreadable expression on his skull. Suddenly, the musician bowed so deeply that his cylinder fell down onto the table.

"Thank you very much."

Now the swordsman's unharmed eye grew large and his beer glass slipped down a few inches along his fingers.

The skeleton straightened up and took a seat, a smile on his face.

"And you're welcome," the musician finished his sentence, taking his hat off the table.

Confused, Sanji looked at the swordsman, who quickly turned his gaze to his glass. The Dark King next to him smiled, but it did not reach his eyes.

"Thank you," Zoro muttered to no one in the room.

For a moment, everyone was calm, but then Sanji felt a grin spread across his own face and the others began to smile as well. Gradually they looked at each other and very slowly something seemed to arise between them.

Luffy laughed loudly and picked up his beer mug.

"To our returnee Zoro!"

They all, even Franky and Robin, joined in and raised their glasses.

Only Zoro held his glass back and a gentle redness crept over his nose as the mood, that Sanji had expected all day, finally set in.

They had rescued a crewmember, that was the only thing that should count that evening.

He put the huge dessert on the table and patted the swordsman's shoulder as he passed by. In response, he received only a quiet grumble, but he was used to it.

Finally, it was there, this feeling for happiness after they had won.

"You have to tell us more stories!" Usopp insisted, leaning on the table with both elbows.

"I'd be interested to know if dragons have to poop," Brook said, enjoying his tea.

"Yes, Zoro. I want to hear more!" Chopper jumped back and forth in his chair, while Sanji loudly informed the musician about manners at the dinner table.

"Is that actually okay?" Nami still sounded serious. "I mean, your name is not Zoro, right? You're Bronze, so we should call you that, shouldn't we?"

She shrugged a little helplessly.

"But that's totally stupid," Franky complained, "then everyone knows immediately what his weakness is."

"Yes, but it's his name!" Nami quid back. "And the name Bronze has a culture, a history, therefore..." She did not finish the sentence but made further movements with her arms. Uncertainly, she looked over to Zoro. "So, how shall we call you?"

The swordsman slightly tilted his head, then he scoffed silently, a dark grin crawling over his face and he shook his head.

"For the last 22 years I've been Roronoa Zoro and even though I hate that this idiot here built in a pun," he nodded towards the Dark King, "it's still my name. Apart from that, Roronoa actually was my mother's surname."

"So it's actually Roronoa Bronze Zoro?" Usopp muttered thoughtfully, "or rather Roronoa Zoro Bronze?"

"Don't you dare!" The swordsman growled instantly.

Rayleigh, on the other hand laughed: "Oh, this reminds me of the times when we wanted to give you a slightly more inconspicuous name. You have resisted every human name and we had such nice ideas: Ronald, Rupert, Ray, Reed, Robert. I can't list them all anymore and in the end it became Robin, right...?"

The Dark King slapped a hand against his mouth and his eyes grew large, as if he had just revealed a great secret.

"Oops, that wasn't planned."

The swordsman next to him slapped his hand against his forehead and just shook his head.

"What do you mean by that?" Robin had been very quiet up until now and had almost not participated in any conversation at all. But now she looked at the Dark King with watchful eyes. "How do you mean that, Rayleigh?"

The former pirate swallowed heavily and looked over to Zoro, still these wide-open eyes and sheer panic on his face.

"Oh no," the swordsman grumbled defensively, "you brought it up, you can deal with it. That whole name-giving-crap was your stupid idea after all, I had nothing to do with it."

"Well," Rayleigh muttered, a little bit moping, giving his former crew member a hostile look from the side. "Okay, the story is this: As you know, Roger and I made Bronze believe that we were also half dragons, but we had our real names and it didn't take an hour for Roger to slip mine."

Zoro next to him nodded agreeingly.

"So out of necessity I said that we had given ourselves human names to be less suspicious and Roger quickly started to have fun naming Bronze several different names and since our two names started with an R, Bronze's human name had to as well."

The swordsman rolled his eye.

"They made a real game out of it. Even after I found out that they had lied to me and we had gained new crewmembers, they just didn't stop it. It was extremely annoying," he murmured, emptying his glass.

"And just because it annoyed you so much, we kept doing it," Rayleigh informed him with a wink, before adding: "It had become a true recruiting ritual that the latest addition to our crew had to choose a name – which had to start with an R – for Bronze whenever we would go offshore. And of course, for as long as we were there, Bronze was only to be addressed by that name."

"It was pretty pointless because I almost never ran around as a human being and every idiot could see that I wasn't one."

"Well, I admit," Rayleigh continued, glaring in fake annoyance at the other one, "that Bronze never - and I want to stress _never_ _\- _reacted to any name anybody chose. For years he didn't and yet we continued to do so just out of spite until one day we had some fun at some beach and the crew played water polo. I was a referee," he added proudly.

"But just because neither team wanted you," Zoro commented with an evil grin, nodding to the attentively listening crew members. "He always had bad eyes and would miss any ball thrown at him by miles."

"Whatever," Rayleigh murmured, leaning dangerously close to the swordsman, who lifted both arms apologizing, "Bronze was the only one resting on the beach, when suddenly the ball flew straight at him and..."

"I still don't know who messed up that serve," the Marimo mused.

"Yes, who could it have been? Mercury of course, but let me finish the story. So the ball bolted towards him and everyone shouted _'Robin!_' because that's what he had been called that day and well, what can I say, he reacted."

"Of course, it was a ball!"

"And since that day his nickname within the crew has been Robin."

Zoro blushed. "I never liked when you call me that, you know that," he murmured and stood up to fill the empty glasses at the table.

Rayleigh laughed. "Oh, you didn't hate it that much, otherwise you would have stopped us at some point."

"But wait," Usopp muttered, "if they always called you Robin and you were on Ohara, that means that..."

"I don't think we'll ever know," Zoro casually interrupted the sniper, "and that's probably for the best."

Grunting the green-haired man fell back on the swivel chair and continued to speak before another one could.

"But if you really want to hear stories, Silver tell them about Elbaf. After all that was some..."

"El... Elbaf?" Usopp jumped up. "You... you mean Elbaf, the island of giants?" His eyes started glowing.

Almost simultaneously, Zoro started to smile as both Luffy and Rayleigh laughed out loud. Afterwards, the former pirate began to tell the story and within a few minutes there was an enthusiastic atmosphere.

Everyone listened attentively to the old man. Luffy, Usopp and Chopper hung on his lips and were getting closer and closer with their chairs, so that the captain almost sat on the swordsman's lap. Zoro leaned back and folded his arms behind the back of his head. With his eyes closed, he listened quietly to his former vice-captain, a soft smile on his lips.

Sanji provided them all with drinks and treats throughout the evening and found that even the others had a slight sparkle in their eyes.

Both Nami and Robin giggled from time to time and even Franky couldn't prevent agitated hecklings at exciting moments.

Even Sanji had to admit that the Dark King's stories fascinated him, but there was something else. The more time passed, the more alive Rayleigh's narration became and turned more and more into a conversation. They all laughed a lot, especially at the funny moments, but also the exciting and scaring stories caught their attention.

At some point even the swordsman started more and more to participate, interrupting the Dark King to describe his view of the events or telling Rayleigh in return another adventure that the straw hats had experienced, only to be interrupted again by one of the others, who had also witnessed said adventure. It was almost uncommon to hear Zoro talk so much, usually he was more of the silent type.

Even when he was talking about something exciting, his tone rarely differed, but it was striking how much he moved. As if his whole body had to tell the story, he threw his hands in the air, squinched up his face or slapped on the table, his voice barely changing, and slowly Sanji suspected that this part of him was this Bronze they all didn't know yet.

The way Zoro treated Rayleigh, the way he hid his grin behind his drink, the way he spoke with his whole body, but not with his intonation or voice.

And over and over again they all laughed, not just smiling, not this quiet giggle behind closed hands.

Sometimes even Robin couldn't hold on to herself and laughed with all her heart, even the swordsman threw himself back in his chair and laughed like Sanji had never heard him before. He did this as well with his whole body, bobbling over and snorting with laughter, almost falling out of the chair, while Rayleigh or Luffy patted him on the back, also laughing just as much.

Almost like an outsider, Sanji watched the others, a warm feeling in his stomach. That's how being at home should feel like, and it seemed like Zoro had really arrived home for the first time. He had always followed Luffy, had always taken his duties as a crewmember seriously. But only now Sanji did feel that the other had finally arrived and oh, how Sanji envied that.

It was like Chopper had said, they all had a past and Sanji didn't know when his own would catch up with him, but when it would, he could only hope that it would end for him just as well as for the swordsman. Home with a happy ending.

Eventually, the swordsman got up and brought the already sleeping young doctor to bed. When he came back, he could just say goodbye to Robin and Brook, who also wanted to catch some sleep.

Gradually they all disappeared to bed, in the end it was only Nami, Rayleigh, Zoro, and Sanji. The others helped him to clean up more or less voluntarily before Nami also left.

"What about you two?" Sanji asked, turning to the door.

"Oh, Sanji. We have more than 30 years to catch up, believe me that one night is hardly enough for this." Rayleigh patted him heartily on the shoulder and sent him to bed.

"As long as the kitchen isn't in ruins tomorrow morning," the cook muttered, leaving for his bed.

The swordsman answered nothing and only raised one hand as a greeting.

The next morning, Sanji woke up with horror.

He hadn't been drinking that much for a long time and his body didn't thank him. But much more terrifying was the concern about what the Marimo might had done to his kitchen last night.

After a quick wash, Sanji headed towards the galley. He was not surprised that there was no sound coming out of the dining room, probably the two had fallen asleep at some point.

Yawning and stretching, Sanji came in, still in internal conflict, whether he should let the other two sleep or whether he should kick the Marimo against the next best wall as usual.

But then he stopped in surprise. The galley was dark, there was no one there.

Confused, he looked around. Where were they?

But then he saw the bottle of sake standing on the kitchen table. He knew that the swordsman preferred to drink rice wine, and they had often argued about the other one simply taking some without even asking, but this bottle was still closed.

Slowly Sanji lifted the untouched bottle, the seal was undamaged. It was one of the few high-quality bottles that Sanji called his own. Not the very expensive one, for which Nami would never give him enough money, but already one for refined taste.

Why was it standing out here and not on the shelf?

But then he noticed the black cloth, which was carelessly folded under the sake bottle.

For a second, he didn't know what it was until he identified it as the swordsman's bandana.

He stared at the table as horror suddenly awakened within him and an ominous certainty spread through his body.

Still the bottle in his hand, he chased back into the men's cabin.

"Get up!" he roared as anger and panic rose in him. "Zoro is gone!"


	11. Chapter 10

Hello everybody,

here we go, continuing our little journey, enjoy ;-)

The next chapter will be on next saturday, I have to work late on friday and have an important meeting afterwards, so I won't be able to make it on friday, but it will be up on saturday.

So see you then ;-)

* * *

Chapter 10

-Sanji-

"Sanji, the teapot!"

Surprised, the cook jumped up. Loudly whistling, the teakettle bounced furiously on the stove. White steam was chasing up, he quickly took it down and began filling the can.

Nami came over and took the tray of cups and tea from him, looking at him briefly, shaking her head, but saying nothing.

Rubbing his eyes, Sanji returned to his actual task of preparing lunch.

Again, he had been distracted. Like a reminder, it stood there and followed each of his steps. It was the sake bottle he had found on the table two days ago. Now it stood on the windowsill, wrapped in a black cloth, as a constant reminder.

At the table, meanwhile, Nami, Franky, Usopp, and Robin kept on with their intense discuddion, all of them seemed not less exhausted than Sanji.

Two days ago, their swordsman had left the crew and for two days it had been clear to all crew members that they had to get him back. Although the oldest ones of them had a problem with Zoro's past, it did not stop them from wanting to bring him back.

Two days ago, Zoro and Rayleigh had simply disappeared within the dark of the night, without a single word, only leaving behind this sake bottle and Zoro's headscarf as a message.

A clear message.

At first, his escape had caused tension among the remaining ones. After the first confusion had subsided, the first accusations had not waited for long. Usopp had called the older ones in particular to account, but had been quickly silenced by Luffy.

Afterwards the captain had made it very clear that Zoro was part of his crew and that he would not accept a 'No'. He had mentioned no '_either, or' _nor any other conditions, only the simple statement that they would bring Zoro back. He hadn't even been angry that Zoro was gone, apparently he didn't even mind. After that he had gone fishing and left the rest to them.

'_The rest'_, by the way, meant everything, he had only decided that they would bring Zoro back; he didn't care how they were supposed to do that. So, the other crew members had to figure this out on their own, which of course had led to another heated discussion.

Brook had been quick to explain that his hesitations about the dragons had nothing to do with Zoro and that he was not particularly surprised by his disappearance but actually rather sad.

Franky was still critical, even now that they were sitting at the table discussing where to look for Zoro, he made it very clear that he would not simply give silent consent. But as soon as Nami asked him in her raised voice if he didn't want Zoro to be part of the crew, he rowed back.

The most silent about the whole situation was Robin, the one who had threatened to leave the crew if Zoro stayed. In fact, Usopp had blamed her, that Zoro had only left because of her. She had accepted this with a mysterious smile.

"Do you think Brook is right?" asked Nami, handing out the tea. "That Zoro left to distract Korekuta's attention from him and Chopper?"

"Those weren't quite his words, Nami." Robin sounded strangely toneless, she had dark circles under her eyes and didn't even take the cup while browsing through one of the many books she carried around.

Since Zoro's disappearance, she had spent day and night reading.

"It is obvious that Zoro wants to protect us and yet he didn't just leave because of that." She was still talking to her book. "The skull on the flag is a shining signal for the rarity hunters and, as Rayleigh has already told us, Korekuta would catch up with us sooner or later."

"What are you trying to say with that?" Usopp muttered in disbelief. He had apologized for his words and yet he obviously hadn't overcome it.

Now the archaeologist looked at him.

"Brook said it. Zoro will make sure that he will never be captured again."

"Yes, but so what?" Those words slipped out a little too quickly, but Sanji couldn't change it, the last days had been rough on him. "I don't understand why that would change anything."

"I think what Robin means," Franky continued, "is that Zoro alone can hide far better from Korekuta than if he's wanted as a pirate. As long as Korekuta persecutes him, he will not come back, no matter what we say."

"Do you really believe that?" asked Nami, saddened.

"You have seen what Muchinushi's presence does with him." Robin looked back down at her book.

"It doesn't matter anyway." Disheartened, Usopp threw his hands in the air. "We don't even have a clue how to find him. Otherwise we could ask Zoro himself what we can do so he comes back."

"He could have just asked for help," Nami agreed.

"Tze. We are talking about the Marimo here, if he was able to ask for help, he wouldn't have bolted without a word. He lacks the necessary brain cells even for something as simple as that."

"Sanji," Nami softly scolded him, but he could see her smiling slightly.

"But what can we do?" Usopp asked, still unhappy.

"Well, actually Robin said it," Franky commented, taking his cup of tea, which looked vanishingly small in his huge hands. "If we want Zoro to sail with us, we must take care of Korekuta first. He won't come back before."

"But how? Even Roger could hardly stand up to him, not even talking about beating him. How are we supposed to do that?" The navigator doubted with concern. "They lost two crewmembers in the fight. Zoro wouldn't want anything to happen to no one of us."

"And even if we could defeat this guy," Usopp agreed grumpily, "we have no clue where that guy could be after Rayleigh destroyed their island."

Sanji began to set the table; a demanding glare later, both Usopp and Franky got up and helped him, a depressing mood hindering any further conversation.

"It might be that I've just solved this part of the problem," Robin said and, for the first time in days, her face lightened up and she shoved her open book to the navigator. "What do you think about this?"

After an uncertain side glance, Nami began to read, nodding to herself and then suddenly she chuckled.

"Nami, my dear?" Sanji asked anxiously. But she just shook her head and grinned almost as wide as Luffy would.

At that moment, the door opened and said captain stormed in.

"Sanji! You got any...?"

"Luffy!" The navigator jumped up and pointed an outstretched index finger at her captain. "We know how to get Zoro back!"

Confused, the straw-hat boy tilted his head.

"But at first we have to defeat Korekuta and we all will probably die."

"Nami!" Usopp whined weakly from the side.

"Do you still want to go?" she continued, determined. "Zoro won't return until we take care of Muchinushi. But even Roger and Rayleigh had no chance against him. So, it's actually quite possible that we..."

"Nami," Luffy quietly interrupted her, "do you know how to get to Korekuta?"

"Yes!"

Suddenly Luffy grinned as if he were about to open the buffet.

"Then let's go!"

-Zoro-

"Here."

He opened his eyes when a cold bottle touched his leg out of nowhere. Bent over him, Silver showed him a friendly smile.

"You haven't drunken anything for days. It can't be healthy."

The old man straightened up again and walked a few steps away, where he settled on a huge root and unwrapped a small package of food.

"You're still there, Silver," he observed coolly. "I told you that you can leave. I'm fine, there's nothing to worry about."

The former pirate laughed sarcastically. "Yes, for sure," he said, not even looking up, only opening the small box in his lap, revealing steaming fried rice.

With a quiet sigh, Zoro also rose from the lotus position, taking the bottle with him, and sat down on a root near the other one.

"You shouldn't be here anymore," he said roughly, ripping the bottle's cap open. "I'm sure Shakuyaku is waiting for you."

"Shakuyaku would kill me if I left you alone on some island."

"Tze." He cliqued his tongue before taking a deep sip from his bottle, emptying it half the way. After a second, he noted the light burning sensation in his abdomen. He had almost forgotten what it felt like. It was such a familiar feeling.

"Are you sure you chose the right path here?"

He looked up and met Rayleigh's gaze before turning his eyes back to his bottle.

"Running away? Bronze. That's not..."

"Shut up." Zoro shook his head. But whatever he wanted to reply, got stuck in his throat. He just had no words to come up with.

"No," Silver replied gently, as if he knew exactly what was going on in Zoro's head. "In the past, this may have been typical for you. Many, many years ago. Back then you were alone, you had no one. But today, you can't just..."

"I can't just put them in danger, Silver. Not after…"

"I'm not talking about that." His former vice-captain pointed his chopsticks at him to silence him. "I'm talking about you're not being the same anymore. You used to be an absolute loner, the solitude didn't matter to you, but..."

"But nothing has changed," he murmured, taking another sip. "If you haven't noticed it yet take another look. In this life, too, I am a loner. That's my nature, I'm not created for community."

He shrugged and placed the almost empty bottle between his feet.

"Doesn't look like that to me," Silver disagreed. "I think you're trying to fool yourself."

Zoro stiffened in anger, but the other continued speaking. "You're saying stuff like that to make it easier for yourself, to make leaving easier."

"I didn't leave because I wanted to!"

"No, but as soon as it gets difficult, you still bolt out."

Slowly, he grew mad.

"What are you talking about...?"

"You are afraid that others will become important to you!" Rayleigh sounded relentless. "You are afraid of what happens when you can no longer protect them. You're like a cat, you're hiding from friends to die on your own, even though you still could be helped."

"Just shut up!"

"Oh no, certainly not. You have changed, _Zoro_. You may have been a loner in the past, but that's long gone. You may still like to be alone, but you don't like loneliness anymore. You are now just like the rest of us. You need people around you."

He rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

"So what?" He grunted provocatively. "Even if you are right, you know I can't go back."

The Dark King sighed heavily and then turned back to his food.

"I understand that. That is why I am here. I can offer you company. We have a few more years to catch up."

Zoro sighed as well and grinned dryly. Some things would probably never change.

"Say, are you sure you don't want to eat anything?" Silver asked much more relaxed. "You probably got used to it over the last few years."

"I'm fine," he muttered, lifting up the bottle of Spirytus again. He could already guess from the smell that the fried rice could not keep up with the cook's.

Quietly, the Dark King laughed and shook his head as he continued to eat. But after a second, he paused.

"You know, Bronze. I will not live forever."

A well-known deep sorrow rushed through Zoro's limbs.

"None of us will," he commented calmly as he grew cold inside.

"What I want to say." Rayleigh got up and sat down next to him. "There aren't many of us left anymore. Only a few people you can call your friends."

"Silver," he muttered, shaking his head, and turned his gaze away.

"But you still do have friends, a whole crew of people, worrying about you. If we're honest, you're not very good at making acquaintances or even making friends. How long do you want to run away from it?"

Now Zoro stared directly at the other.

"I tried, Silver. I thought I could stay with them and where did that get me? With Chopper and Brook on the list, I have no choice. I can't..." He lowered his head again. "As long as Korekuta lives, I cannot be too close to anyone he could use against me."

With that absolute decision he emptied the bottle of alcohol and got up.

"I'm not going to risk having to go back and if that means I can't travel with the others, so be it."

Behind him, Rayleigh also stood up.

"And what are you going to do?" He murmured displeased. "Who knows how long Korekuta will live. He probably has enough blood supplies for twenty lives. Do you want to hide in a jungle for the rest of your days?"

"Only a few years until the past is dead and buried. I am no longer the dragon of that time. I could now live among people without being very suspicious."

"So that's your plan? Tze," the other one huffed. "You want to become the strange hermit, living on the outsides of some village, where the children try to steal an apple from the garden as a test of courage? Do you really think that will make you happy? Do you think this is a livable life?"

"I have to survive," he growled, turning to his old friend, showing him his left palm. "You know I'm not allowed to die yet!"

"But that doesn't mean you not allowed to live!" Rayleigh took a step forward and grabbed his wrist. In the middle of his palm, the lines of the dragon mark converged and formed a tiny image of the dragon bud.

"Your legacy doesn't mean you have to give up everything else!"

"That's exactly what it means!"

He slapped his friend's hand away. By now, they both had grown louder and louder, yelling at each other.

"That's the difference, Silver! That's the difference between Zoro and Bronze, just that! It's no longer just about me, about my life, about my dream. There are things that are more important, much more important."

He hadn't yelled the last sentence, no, saying it much quieter, almost whispering. He didn't want to argue, and he didn't want to justify himself to anyone.

But now Rayleigh just shook his head and asked more clearly: "And what about your dream? Didn't you want to become the greatest swordsman in the world? Are you just giving it up now?"

Firmly he gritted his teeth. He had to admit that he wasn't really used to it anymore.

Luffy was not one to handle disputes with words, and Zoro had no objection to physical arguments. Otherwise, few crew members dared to go into a direct confrontation with him. With Robin it was usually not necessary and even if Nami or Franky approached him, they usually kept quiet after a subtle glare.

Only the cook was mostly unimpressed by this and often wanted to carry out the conflict with him to the end. But Zoro, too, knew how to put him in his place without much effort.

No, if he was honest, he rarely had to deal with such comments in this crew and even back in his old life there had been few who had dared to talk so directly at him. The vice-captain had certainly been one of the few, perhaps the only one. Never insecure, never shy. Silver had shown no consideration for this, had never been intimidated by him.

But he had no idea!

"Dreams are for human!" He growled and left.

"What?!" The other hurried after him. "And what are you? Aren't you also a human?"

"I was never a human being! I just thought I was one. I am neither a human, nor a dragon. You know that!"

Suddenly the other grabbed him by the collar and threw him against the next best tree.

"I know you're a complete idiot!" He yelled.

His anger almost surprised Zoro. He had often argued with the other, but Silver almost never became physical. No, Zoro had mostly fought only with Roger until Rayleigh had intervened.

"I am tired of your eternal whining," the other bluffed at him. "Always suffering about your whole existence! Oh, you poor hybrid, the last of your kind, rejected by the world, persecuted by the World Government!"

Theatrically, he threw his hands in the air.

"As if you were the only one with a shitty past! Do you think you are the only one who feels like a monster, who regrets his past deeds? I must inform you that you can line up next to every other goddamn human."

Zoro wanted to counter, but the other pressed him against the tree with both hands.

"And you are not the only one who has a damn burden to shoulder. But you're the only damn one I know who's been complaining about it all his life, rather than just pulling yourself together. If you ask me you whine a lot for a dragon, almost like a human!"

If the swordsman wanted to free himself, he would only be able to do so through violence, and although he was anything but prissy, he did not want to fight the old man.

"Now you had to leave your crew to be able to hide from Muchinushi and now you have to give up your dream, because dreams are for humans and..."

"Stop it," he muttered calmly.

"No, I'm just getting started. What are you planning to do after all of this? When years have passed, when I am dead, when Luffy has become the King of Pirates and your crew is old, when Mihawk is old and weak. What will you do? What will you do when no one knows you anymore, when you have no one left?"

"Stop it, Silver."

"No, I'm not going to stop! Not as long as there is still a spark of life in me! I swore Roger to take care of you, you are the last one of us and what do you have in store if you are all alone? Want to plant the dragon bud in this world? Will you pursue your goal you threated back then? Single-manly wiping out all humanity?"

"Are you done?"

The other stared at him, breathing heavily, and shook his head but said nothing more.

Sighing, Zoro loosened the other's hands and freed himself from his grip.

"Go home, Silver, and if you run into Luffy along the way, greet him from me."

He turned away.

"Do you really think you're going to get rid of me so easily? As soon as I leave this island you will take off, right? I'm going to go to the village now and let Shakuyaku know so she won't worry. Tomorrow morning I'll be back. There is more alcohol and other stuff in the bags, treat yourself."

"Tze, do what you want." He went back into the forest.

"Of course, as if I would to listen to your orders," the other shouted after him.

As angry as Zoro was, as angry as he was at the other, he was grateful. Grateful that he was not alone.

-Sanji-

"I got it!"

Triumphantly, Nami marched in, ripped both hands in the air and proudly showed off her capture. With a broad grin, she placed a tiny glass ball in the middle of the dining table.

"You're fantastic, Nami-swan."

The chef could barely turn his gaze from her. She wore a low-cut black dress with a blood-red shawl, matching her shoes and lipstick, and her smile alone was enough to make him fall on one knee.

Behind her, Usopp walked into the dining room, also in a perfectly fitting black suit with back-tied hair and black sunglasses. Keeping a straight face, he threw a considerably filled cloth bag next to the Eternal Pose.

"What?" Franky murmured, eyeing the cloth bag. "That's much more than you took with you. Wasn't the deal to get the Eternal Pose?"

"Well? What's so bad about combining work with a bit of pleasure? In addition, we're almost always broke, so what can it hurt to make some cash?"

The navigator threw herself on the closest chair and crossed her legs.

"I have to say, Usopp, you were much better than I expected."

Now a small grin snuck on the sniper's face.

"Oh, come on, I just played the bait."

"And you did so fantastically. You counted cards so obviously that hardly anyone paid attention to me."

"So that's it," muttered Robin, who leaned forward and picked up the small glass ball. "Now we finally know where to find Korekuta."

"It only took us forever," the ship's carpenter grumbled unhappily.

"Next time you can go, squeeze yourself into a tight frock and try to sweet-talk some mafia killers," Nami countered moody. "Let's see how long it will take you to get it done."

"Guys, guys." Sanji stood at the short end of the table and raised his hands calmly. "For once, can we not argue? We have the Eternal Pose, so could we just...?"

"Could we just what?" Franky interrupted him roughly. "I really don't want to be the party pooper, but you all pretend we've already beaten Korekuta. But if we're honest, all we have so far is a general guess where this guy might be. We don't even know if he's really there or anywhere else in the world and even if we meet him there, how the hell shall we defeat him? Even the Hell's Trio didn't have the whiff of a chance against him. You've heard Rayleigh."

"I'm slowly getting the feeling you don't want Zoro to come back." Nami got up and hissed at Franky. "Whenever it comes to what we can do or where Zoro could be, you start bad-mouthing it all, no matter what. You're not a big help, you know, and if you don't want to help, at least shut the hell up!"

"I'm not going to let you shut me up," the cyborg replied, as furiously, but remained seated. "This isn't about Zoro at all, it's about challenging an opponent who has easily took out two members of the Pirate King's crew, and you wonder why I don't take it so lightly?"

"And since when have we been stopped by such a thing?" Nami disagreed with her arms folded. "We have a talent for picking dangerous enemies. For example, the World Government, if I may remind you. That's what happens when you have friends, you're loyal to each other."

"But do you think Zoro would want even one of us to get hurt because of him, because we are fighting a battle that he obviously wants to avoid. Why do you think he's hiding? In addition, two of us are on this list and we have nothing better to do than to make the job easier for these rarity hunters."

"It's Zoro!"

The door to the hospital room had opened and the little doctor was standing in the door frame, breathing heavily and trembling with anger.

"I don't care if I'm on some stupid list and if Zoro doesn't want anything to happen to me! I want Zoro to be back with us, and if we have to deal with the world aristocrats to do so, so be it!" He stomped once on the floor with his hooves.

"Zoro was always there for me and no matter how mad he might have been, he always fought for each of us." Tears were streaming down his fur. "Now it's my turn to protect him from these Korekutas and if it costs me my life, I'll gladly die!"

"Chopper," Nami whispered quietly.

"Hahaha, but that won't be necessary." On the other side of the room the main door was ripped open as well by no one but the captain of the small crew, the fishing route on his shoulder, laughing loudly. "At the end of the day, Muchinushi is mine and I know exactly how I'm going to defeat him!"

"What?"

"But last time the guy just threw you around like a broken toy." Usopp's comparison was a bit harsh, but not entirely inappropriate.

The cook folded his arms and looked over to Luffy in doubt.

"Listen," he said, "I also think we should take on this Muchinushi, but we're most likely to have a chance if we fight him together."

The black-haired man shook his head.

"No," he still grinned, "trust me. I know exactly what I need to do."

Then he hit his clenched fists against each other, ready to fight.

"I still have to settle a score with him, so leave it to me."

The others exchanged uncertain glances, but it was not uncommon for their captain to propose such plans.

"Then that leaves the usual horde of rarity hunters for the rest of us, who we already dealt with last time," Chopper noted just as aggressively.

"Well, don't forget Joudama," Usopp interjected. "She may not be a fighter, but that's Muchinushi neither and when I think about how easy she could just make an entire island float, I don't think she'll be taken out that easily."

"Seven of us against one? I like our chances." Nami sounded extremely confident of victory.

"Well, I'm not so convinced it'll be that easy," Franky grumbled, still upset. "Even if everything goes smoothly - and that's a big _if_ \- then we still don't know where Zoro is." He shook his head.

"Just stop it!" Nami growled at him. "I've told you several times that Rayleigh probably knows where he is, and we have his Vivre Card."

Now she shook her head and went over to the kitchenette to get a coffee.

"Personally, I think you're out of line here. We were all surprised by the events, okay? I don't like at all what's going on right now either. But we all have our past. I may not have killed anyone, but I stole their belongings, regardless of the consequences and who knows what happened to these people afterwards. You just brand Bronze as evil because of the stories you've heard, but the world isn't just black and white, good and evil. Like none of us. You stole our money and beat up Usopp - just by the way - and yet we are friends. Perhaps Zoro has made mistakes in his past and maybe he has inflicted suffering on many innocent people, and of course no one can justify that, but you're pretending he's still the same, as if he'd just gone around killing people for the fun of it."

"Nami, please, this conversation..." It was the first time that the so silent Robin got involved in a dispute during the last days.

"No, Robin. You know, if you were to say something, I could understand that. But you talked to Zoro and since then you haven't even said anything about us wanting to get him back. But Franky, on the other hand, probably doesn't want us to be successful at all. You don't want Zoro to come back, do you?"

Suddenly it was dead silent. Even Luffy had turned his gaze away and whistled innocently as he painted invisible pictures on the floor with his foot.

The cyborg cleared his throat and blushed.

"I never said I didn't want Zoro back in the crew," he grumbled, not as intimidated as Sanji just felt, although the navigator hadn't approached him at all. "But I'm not as naive as you. We cannot simply ignore the whole thing with Bronze. You only think of Zoro all the time, but the fact is that Zoro is also Bronze and Bronze is also a dragon, or just half a dragon, I don't care. There is a reason why people were afraid not only of Bronze, but of dragons in general. Even if the stories are exaggerated, there is a grain of truth in them; Dragons are dangerous, right Brook?"

Surprised by the fact that he was mentioned, the skeleton first picked up his cup of tea and took a deep sip before replying: "Well, I'm really not an expert on dragons. But as far as I know, dragons don't feel emotions, nor do they have a sense of morality. Besides..."

"Oh, that's nonsense," Sanji said now, and could see that Nami also opened her mouth to disagree. "I got no idea where you got it from and I certainly can't speak for dragons, but we know that the Marimo's a damn moralizer. All he constantly talks about is honor, as a swordsman, as a crew member, as a pirate, as a damn seaweed on legs. And as for feelings; have you interrupted him once when he makes push-ups? Well, if these rage attacks aren't emotions, then I don't know anymore."

"Exactly!" Nami agreed with him, and directly Sanji filled an inner warmth, full of passion he turned to the lady of his heart, his arms widespread to confess his eternal love to her, but then...

"Well, Brook isn't wrong. In all the books and works, I have ever read about dragons, it has been reported that they do not think and feel like humans." It was like a dagger in Sanji's heart that his beloved Robin was wielding. "But that doesn't mean they don't have feelings at all. Rather, their emotions are simply a much weaker part of their thought mechanism. They have feelings, but they can consciously separate them from their thoughts."

"Honestly, that kind of sounds like machines," Usopp muttered, shrugging slightly, "no offense, Franky."

The archaeologist nodded: "It's true in a way. Because dragons can think and act regardless of their feelings, they lack this very natural evaluation mechanism, if you like, morality. But it would be wrong to think that they have no emotions at all, they are just not as present and noticeable in dragons as in us humans."

Slowly, she stirred in her coffee, which had been cold for a long time by now.

"And Sanji is right. Zoro may not be one to let his feelings overwhelm him, but we've all experienced him being emotional. It is quite obvious that at least his human side feels like we do and he cannot simply turn off his feelings like dragons apparently could. Otherwise, he would certainly have reacted differently to Muchinushi."

Then she shrugged her shoulders and looked a little more relaxed for the first time in days. "But that would at least explain why feelings are a mystery for him."

Nami showed a subtle smile.

"So, then it's decided" Luffy laughed, "let's beat up this Muchinushi in and then we'll get Zoro back."

He laughed even louder.

"I can't wait to go on a flight with Zoro. These wings are so cool!"


	12. Chapter 11

Hi,

so like I said, I couldn't make it yesterday, but here I am with the second-last chapter and we will finish as planned next friday.

So I hope you'll enjoy it ;-)

* * *

Chapter 11

-Zoro-

An inner calmness filled him.

Not that it was surprising, after all, he was resting at the moment and that was better than sleeping.

Unlike humans, dragons regenerated not through sleep, but through _resting, _one of his favorite activities.

Different to sleeping, there were two types of resting. Light and deep resting. The former could perhaps be compared to the effectiveness of a nap, although it took much more time. He could use light resting to gain energy only in the short term, because during this phase he was aware of everything happening in his surrounding, so it wasn't really relaxing. It took him about 12 hours of light resting to be as refreshed as he could be within four hours of sleep.

Not that he had slept often during his earlier life. At that time, he had almost never been on the road as a human and therefore could not remember having ever slept like one.

In this life, of course, things were different. Although he could not stay asleep for long at a time - and therefore appreciated his little naps in between - it was his favorite occupation, besides practice of course.

Since he had left the crew - no, since the Korekutas had tracked him down - sleep had not been an option, because unlike resting, one could not actively decide to sleep, but had to relax and relaxation was a luxury that he could not afford most of the time.

But light resting took far too much time for him to really recover, he was reluctant to do so if he could avoid it. It was an unnecessary pastime.

Thus, he only could rest deeply if he wanted to do something else meaningful during the day, such as training, and he had to, after all, he still had a long way to go to regain his old strength.

The deep resting was completely opposite to light resting. Within an hour or two, he was able to fully recover, and the lottery game, whether he would wake up relaxed – as he did with sleeping – did not exist.

Still, it was something he never did lightheartedly. While he could observe his surroundings continuously during the light resting and could also wake up at any time while sleeping, this just did not happen with deep resting.

As long as he was resting, he was completely isolated from his environment. If the world were to go down, he wouldn't notice. Even if someone chopped off his arm, he wouldn't notice until he was done resting.

He recalled the second time he had deeply rested in Rayleigh and Roger's presence and they had been attacked. He had almost drowned in the sea and hadn't even beware of it. Bad thing, slowly coming back to one's senses – not even able to freely move for several seconds – and noticing that enemies were all around.

If Silver weren't in his immediate vicinity right now, he wouldn't dare to rest deeply. Before he had met the two pirates, he had almost never done it; it would have been far too dangerous and even now he could only afford such a risk, because the other man was present and Zoro could entrust his life to him.

But deep resting was not a like dreamless sleep, no, while his subconscious processed the things it had to process, he was able to consciously arrange his thoughts or even relive memories from the point of view of an outsider.

Time seemed to pass more slowly as he rested deeply, something he had never fully understood. Sometimes he repeated memories of whole days and little more than a few hours had passed. On the other hand, he had sometimes turned off his head only for minutes and woke up three hours later.

Time was something he hadn't been counting on for a long time. What even was time?

The last few days had also been blurred into a strange unity. If the sun hadn't kept going up and down, and his former vice-captain hadn't kept pushing him to pause, he couldn't have said how much time had passed.

He had only trained, just like the last two years, but this time mainly in his true form.

But being all honest, the training had not really helped him. It was a miserable attempt to distract him, distract him from the truth, Silver hadn't minced his words about. So, from now on, his future would look like this?

Slowly he began to notice his body again, in a few seconds to minutes he would return into the real world.

It used to be easier; it had not been pleasant to leave his crew all those years ago, but he had always expected it, had expected to leave at some point, like a dark foreboding.

It was precisely the same foreboding that he had had back then, when he had met Luffy, and had told him that he would only follow the boy with the straw hat as long as it did not hinder his dream.

Now Zoro was simply discarding it, giving it up. Something for which he had been training, fighting, living for over twenty years. It hurt, it hurt indescribable.

But he knew that neither Rayleigh nor anyone from his crew could ever understand it, perhaps most likely Nami. The navigator also had a dream, but back then, when her island had been tyrannized by the pirate Arlong, she had sacrificed it for the goal to save her island - her homeland.

Now she was free, her island was free, and she could finally pursue her dream. She had lost a few precious years, but still had enough time to fulfill her dream of drawing the first map of the world.

It was a little different for him. At some point, Hawkeyes would get too old, and even if someone even better would beat him, if Zoro was honest, it wasn't just about becoming the greatest swordsman in the world anymore. Since their encounter in the East Blue, it had become something personal between him and Hawkeyes. He wanted to return the wound Mihawk had given him, just as he had promised.

He still wanted the title, still wanted the world to shout his name, that the whole world would know that Roronoa Zoro was the greatest swordsman in the world, that future generations of swordfighters would call his name in the same breath as the greatest masters of the old times.

But he didn't want – under no circumstance - that people thought it was just because his dragon powers. He didn't want an unfair advantage, even if he couldn't do anything about it. At a certain age, his dragon genes would give him advantages even in the human body, at least he would not age as fast as the average, he knew from the past.

So, if he really wanted to realize his dream, he had to achieve it beforehand so that he would not cheat himself. But even then, he felt he had already received an unfair advantage. After all, he no longer looked back on twenty years of life experience, but on roughly four times as many.

He had not asked to be born as a Bronze into this world, and he had not asked to grow up without all these memories, had not asked to recover them. Now he carried the burden of his old life on his shoulders and did not know what to do.

But he knew two things.

First, he had a mission, he was the ninth generation of heirs, he had to ensure the survival of the dragons and the Tree of Life regardless of the consequences. This meant that at some point he would have to plant the Dragon Bud, from whose fruits new dragons would hatch to protect the crown of the Tree of Life once again.

On the other side, the second thing he knew was that no matter what, he would never again be captured by Korekuta. That was the one thing he would not put up with, not even for his destiny.

But the real question was, was Rayleigh right?

In the distant future, if the few people important to him were no longer alive, would he really pursue his former goal and completely wipe out the world nobles, who had taken away the name of his people, the Celestial Dragons?

He didn't know.

On one hand, he knew it wouldn't help him. Revenge was never something he would approve. On the other hand, only one thought of the past was enough and part of him wanted to do it. The dragon part of him wanted it more than anything.

He felt a deep sigh in his chest. Soon he would wake up.

How much he had envied his father, who had been able to completely separate his feelings from his rational thinking. As a child, he had never understood why he had been different, but by now, of course, he knew the reason.

Yes, he was rational; yes, he could ignore his feelings for his decisions, but they were always there, they always hurt, and they were mostly very clear. He did not feel anger, sorrow, joy and suffering all at once, he only felt anger, only pain, only joy. One feeling almost completely covered any other and it took him a lot of trouble to distinguish the other ones below.

Not that he usually took the time to think about it at all. By now it was easier, the twenty years in human form had helped him.

Slowly, he opened his eyes.

It welcomed him a ceiling of green leaves. A few more seconds, then he would be able to move again. His fingers tingled, he heard the surrounding nature, the rustling of the leaves, distant bird voices, quiet paws over the forest floor.

"Well, good morning."

Clumsily, he sat up and looked over to the former pirate. His lips were still too heavy to be able to make comprehensible words. He would never get used to the half-minute that his body needed to fully awaken.

"Two hours and 18 minutes," Rayleigh replied to the question, which Zoro hadn't had to ask for years. The old man sat in the same place where he had been sitting, when Zoro had decided to rest, and read the newspaper relaxed.

Stiff, Zoro got up and stretched.

"Do you really plan on watching over me from now on?" he mumbled, reaching for one of the bottles the other had brought him.

"If it's necessary, of course."

"Must be quite boring." He pulled out the cork with his teeth, spat it aside, and took a deep sip.

"Oh, I've always wanted to take some time to try out a few new hobbies I couldn't before. Knitting, for example."

Zoro couldn't prevent a quiet chuckle and promptly choke on his drink.

"What?" The other said, grinning. "Don't you think such a hobby would fit me?"

"I dare you to open up a bar here just to have an excuse to drink and gamble all day." His voice was still slightly scratchy.

"Unnecessary, the village down the mountain has a bar. The waitress is really a feast for the eyes."

Zoro looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"That means you've already been banned from the house. Cheated again?"

"What gave you that idea?" Slightly offended, the other turned over another page.

"Because you're bad at playing cards. Even I beat you and I learned to play from you, remember?"

With a heavy sigh, the other rejected the bottle Zoro offered him.

"No thanks, at my age I shouldn't drink such high-proof stuff anymore. Would probably only end in stomach pains." He shook his head. "It's sad that a simpleton like Roger could suck the money from our pockets."

The swordsman could only agree to this.

But suddenly Zoro realized that something had changed on the island. His bare feet dug easily into the ground.

"Have you noticed it just now?" His former vice-captain asked mockingly. "My goodness, your senses are really still expandable, my dear."

"You knew?" He swallowed heavily and looked over to the other.

"What? Why do you think I urged you to rest? Just so you wouldn't get stupid ideas." Angry, he stared at the other. "Don't look at me like that. Would you have bolted again? Wouldn't you have bolted again? You were exhausted and would have certainly made some stupid decisions."

"Silver, I didn't leave, just so they can sack me back in now. That wasn't the point of the whole plan."

"What plan are you talking about? Waiting till all your friends are asleep and then vanishing within the dark of the night? Of course, they were going to track you down. Maybe they just want to talk to you. After all, you didn't really say goodbye. But you have to admit that they are good. Following my Vivre Card to find you."

Zoro turned away and glanced into the distance. Rayleigh got up and came to him, also looking in the same direction.

"So Bronze, they just went ashore. I don't know how long it takes them to find us. What are you up to? If you leave now you would make it, I mean they would definitely see you, but then at least they would know for sure that you won't come back."

"Shut up, would ya?"

"Oh, are you that nervous?" The other mocked.

"What if Korekuta followed them? He's not an idiot. What if they unknowingly brought him along?"

Suddenly the other grabbed him by the shoulder and looked at him seriously.

"Then I know exactly what to do."

A proof of trust and friendship that Zoro would never want to demand. A burden he never wanted Silver to carry, so he just nodded and hoped for the best.

He waited anxiously.

While Rayleigh had opened his newspaper again and continued to read, he tried to relax with his usual meditation techniques, but for God's sake, who would have thought that the others would find him in such a short time?

Of course, it had been a risk to stay close to his former vice-captain, but he hadn't actually expected the others to drop out of their course just to look for him. Perhaps before this whole debacle, but he strongly doubted that all crew members would welcome him with open arms.

It was true that his departure was not the most sensitive of the sort, but it had been better that way, this way at least he had tried to prevent the discussion 'Robin or Zoro'. He was grateful that she had engaged in a conversation and he felt he had reached a conclusion with her on a good note. By the end, their conversation had felt almost like it used to be, but he knew the wound in her trust was too deep.

Throughout her life she had associated the name Bronze with the pain of her incredible loss, he could well understand this pain and knew that it could not pass so easily just because she now knew that he was Bronze, just because she now knew his part of the history. The special relationship they had nourished and enjoyed was now torn apart by their linked tragic histories, and it hurt him, but it hurt even more that he had hurt her, and there was nothing he could do about it, nothing but wait.

Then he heard them.

Luffy's voice hollered through the jungle long in advance.

On Rayleigh's confirming nod, he got up and stepped into the clearing where they had set up their modest camp. The first thing he saw was the man he called his captain, and the moment Luffy saw him, he ran, jumped towards him and literally swept him off his feet.

It hurt.

Not the impact, of course not. But the knowledge that they were there because of him, that his captain had obviously missed him and that they were there.

Damn it!

He never thought he would have missed them so much. It took him his whole control to not embrace the younger man on top of him.

"Zoro!" Luffy grinned at him.

"Luffy," he muttered.

In the background, he could hear the others. But all he saw was the face of his captain, who just looked down to him. Zoro swallowed, he knew his eyes were uncomfortable for most people, and yet Luffy looked directly at him, didn't dodge his gaze for a second.

"I have something for you." Luffy was still grinning and rolled to the ground next to Zoro and sat up.

"What?" Confused, Zoro got into a sitting position as well. He hadn't expected that declaration.

For a second, he let his gaze wander over the others. They all looked excited, rosy cheeks, hidden or open grins. They were all there, no one had stayed behind at the Thousand Sunny.

"Here."

Luffy had both hands hidden behind his back and pulled them forward now, pulling something out from under his vest.

Then he presented him two sticks. At least for a second he thought they were two sticks.

"No," he whispered and the blood in his veins curdled.

Luffy didn't hold two simple sticks, it was a broken, white cane.

"There's no reason for you anymore not to come home," Luffy said, surprisingly soft. "He will never do anything to you ever again."

No one said anything and Zoro tried to understand. But it was impossible. Muchinushi was invincible, was invulnerable, was...

He shook his head.

What did that mean?

Was the broken cane a peace offering from Korekuta, that he would leave him at peace as long as Luffy lived? Was it a sign that he didn't even need the walking stick to get him back? Did he mean that he would no longer forgive?

"Why doesn't he say anything?"

"What's going on?"

"Zoro?"

He heard their voices.

What had they done?

What had they given for this and what would it cost him?

Zoro had run; it had not been the best solution, but a reasonable one, a solution that should endanger neither them nor him. What had they done?

"Don't look like that." Luffy laughed. "It's all good."

"What did you do?" Zoro whispered helplessly.

"Took care of your worst nightmare as it seems," the cook commented dryly.

Hearing the words but not understanding, he looked up to the blond.

"What, can't you even speak anymore?" Sanji grumbled. "You've heard it or are you too stupid to understand? The Korekutas are gone. Luffy defeated Muchinushi."

Behind him, Silver gasped for air, but Zoro still didn't know what that meant. Confused, he looked at his captain again, who was still grinning foolishly.

"It wasn't that easy," he admitted laughing. "Until I understood how he was fighting, I had to take in some beating. But the trick is that he's only as strong as your own attack and when I figured that out, it was really funny. But after his stick broke, it became damn bleak, because without it this Mussel-Nussel is not really that strong. The others helped me, and then we made it."

"Muchinushi," Usopp corrected, a hand covering his mouth.

"I don't understand," Zoro finally managed to say. "What kind of deal did you make?"

Now the straw-hat boy looked at him very confused.

"Deal?" he asked. "Oh, right."

Then he nodded with a grin.

"Yes, so the deal was that I kicked all his teeth out of his wide grin and told him to keep his hands of his stupid list if he didn't want me to break them one at a time."

Luffy didn't stop grinning for a second, although it didn't fit at all that a naive simpleton of his captain would make such threats.

"What?"

"You still don't get it?" Nami asked with a broad smile. "Luffy teared the strips off Muchinushi, knocked the stuffing out of him, beat him up, however you want to express it. And we took care of Joudama."

"Amazing," the Dark King behind him whispered, more delighted than skeptical.

And slowly, very slowly, he understood. He saw the broken staff in front of him and understood what it meant.

He couldn't breathe, something unknown happened to him as he stretched out a hand and touched the broken cane. Almost at the same time, all these memories returned and shattered in front of his inner eye.

He pressed the other hand against his mouth when he finally understood what Luffy had done, what he had done for him, and that he had made it.

The tears ran down his cheeks hot, burning into his skin.

"Zoro?"

"What…?"

He could hear them, their concern, but he couldn't stop it, bending over as this one emotion captured him and the tears took their course unconstrained.

He screamed out the pain, couldn't keep it within himself, couldn't stand it, couldn't stand it any longer and then he felt warmth.

Arms hugged him, hands embraced him, familiar smells, familiar touches, on his back, arms, shoulders, hands, chest, legs. Long hair fell down his ear, fur swiped his cheek on the other side, fingers stroked through his hair.

He cried and cried while they held him.

He was home. He was finally home.


	13. Epilogue

So, this is the final chapter, guys.

I hope you enjoyed the story and thank you all for sticking with me to the end. I am grateful for each single comment, favo, and follow and maybe we see each other on another project ;-)

Till then have a great time

Sharry

* * *

Epilogue

"Hurry up, Zoro!"

"I'm coming, stop being so annoying!"

Zoro let himself be dragged along by his captain over the lawn on deck of the Thousand Sunny. He had returned yesterday. Now they were on the high seas, on their way to another adventure.

The past night had been very difficult for him and still he could hardly believe that his nightmare was over, that the man, who had haunted him all his life, who had killed two of his crew members, was now defeated.

It had been tough last night. He knew that their actions did not erase his past. There was still much to be talked about, many conflicts to clear up. He noticed it whenever Franky was near him; the cyborg inspected him mostly suspiciously, but he did say nothing.

Robin, on the other hand, had avoided any conversation so far, which had not been particularly complicated, because she had retreated to the library for reading and Zoro could not follow her, as Usopp, Luffy and Chopper were constantly following him around and pestering him with any questions they could think of.

They wanted to know everything about him, the dragons, his old crew, they never stopped. Even when they went to bed late, Luffy had leaned down to him from his upper bunk and asked him the most ridiculous things.

Zoro knew he would have to answer all those questions at some point, but at the moment he didn't want to think too much about things from his past but stay in the present. The days he had spent apart from the crew had reminded him how important they were to him.

Arriving in the galley, a feast awaited him, all the crew members were present, Rayleigh too, whom they would probably drop off on the next island.

"What's going on?" he grumbled, and actually wanted to be annoyed that they interrupted his training because of something like this. He wanted to return to normality, as normal as it could be with this crew, but these celebrations, well...

"Don't blame us," the cook directly grumped back, standing in the galley with a cigarette and probably able to read Zoro's face too well. "If you hadn't blown our last 'Welcome Back Party', we wouldn't have to throw another one."

He sounded quite annoyed, but the corners of his mouth shifted to a crooked grin, before he took another draw from his cigarette.

Like a few weeks earlier, they toasted to him, each of them lifting their glasses, and then the celebration began. Considering that they were only ten, they managed to wreak havoc.

Chopper and Luffy danced on the tables, their mouths crammed with sticky rice cakes. Franky and Brook sat next to them and played music enthusiastically while Usopp sang the 81st verse of 'Sogeking's heroics deeds'.

Nami and Robin chatted happily with Rayleigh, who looked much younger that night than during the last few days. If Zoro ignored the white beard, his friend looked almost like his vice-captain from all those years ago.

Sighing, he turned to his beer.

Then his gaze slid on his left hand. Although he couldn't see it right now, the dragon mark was always there, whether he was walking around as a human or not, he could no longer hide his true nature. One day he would have to fulfill his mission and make the dragon bud bloom, only this way he could save his species.

But not today; not today, and not tomorrow.

Maybe Rayleigh was actually right. Perhaps his legacy did not mean that he had to give up everything else.

From the corner of his eye, he watched Luffy dance.

Perhaps it was alright for him to fulfil his dream, to become the greatest swordsman in the world, and perhaps only perhaps he would be there when his captain was to create a new world, as his former captain had done before.

Perhaps he would be there when this world was to become a different one; a world in which the dragon bud could bloom.

_I think it was fate that we met._

Fate?

He still didn't know what that term meant.

Was it fate that he had met Roger and Rayleigh? That time had taken a different course for him than it should? That he had forgotten the burden on his shoulders with which he had been born into this world? That Luffy had met him?

He sighed deeply and leaned back a little, looking at his crew, no, his friends.

Fate.

"Why such a long face?"

Surprised, he turned to the side. Next to him stood the cook, who leaned forward to fill up Zoro's glass.

"Not thinking about dumping us again, I hope," the blond murmured unenthusiastically.

The swordsman huffed quietly and forgot his thoughts for a moment.

"Would be pointless. Luffy would come after me again sooner or later. After all, he's the captain." Zoro took a sip. "And only he decides who is allowed to leave the crew and who's not."

The cook leaned against the back of the chair next to Zoro and nodded sincerely. Then the other looked at him seriously.

"Just to be clear," Sanji said, not breaking the eye contact for a second, "Nami was completely out of her mind because of your solo trips and I don't even want to talk about Robin."

The other slammed his own mug on the table.

"If you pull off such crap again, I will cover your swords with bronze and throw them into the sea, understood?"

Zoro almost chocked on his beer over such a mean threat.

"Don't you dare..." He stood up. "If you got a problem with me, come at me, but leave my swords out of it!"

Daring, he opened both arms, but to his surprise the other just smiled and waved it off.

"What? What do you want, cook?!"

Swiftly, one or two crewmembers seemed to look over to them, but obviously the situation was not serious enough for anyone to intervene.

"It's good that you're still you," the blond said with a mischievous grin. "I was already worried that we had lost the swordsman Roronoa Zoro to the dragon Bronze for good."

These words hit Zoro unprepared. He tilted his head, but then turned his gaze away. Of course, he was Zoro; as Zoro he was their crew member, but no one here had asked for Bronze, no one had asked Bronze to join the crew.

Could they ever accept, that he was also Bronze?

"Tze, of course."

Surprised, he looked at the chef, who shook his head.

"You're not just Zoro, I get that. You are Bronze." Now Sanji pushed himself off the back rest and stood in front of him. "But you're not just Bronze either, you're also Zoro. You are both. So, don't forget this other part, understood?"

The cook turned around and walked over to the storeroom.

"What, you're some kind of ugly furniture, Marimo? Use your legs and follow me."

The blond waved him over.

It took Zoro a few seconds to process those words, not even noticing that the other one had just insulted him, but then he finally followed the cook. In the narrow pantry it was much quieter than in the dining room. He had no idea what the chef wanted from him, but if this was supposed to be a sneak attack, the cook would regret it.

"What's going on?" He murmured wary, but the cook ignored him as he browsed through the shelves of the small chamber.

"Somewhere here I must have placed it," the other muttered to himself.

"Cook, what's are we doing here?"

"Ah! Here it is!" The other pushed two wheels of cheese to the side on the bottom shelf and jumped up in excitement, hitting his head lightly against the upper shelf.

Then he turned to Zoro, rubbing his head with one hand and offering something with his other.

"You forgot this, and it belongs to you as much as your swords, right?"

He held a bottle wrapped in a black cloth. Wordlessly, the swordsman took the sake bottle and loosened his headscarf.

But then he noticed what bottle he was holding. It wasn't the same sake he had left behind as a message. This one had a blue label and even now in his hand the bottle felt almost cold.

"What the…?"

The chef smiled.

"Just for once, Zoro, just for once."

He looked astonished at the blond. The bottle in his hand had to cost a small fortune.

"Cook?" he muttered breathlessly, and the other grinned even wider.

"So, don't you dare running off again, understood? Because then I will have to get your bounty to pay my debts back to my lovely Nami."

The blond pushed past him towards the door.

"By the way, you still have to tell me what you eat as a dragon. I'm responsible for the crew's care after all."

Zoro followed him, still speechless.

"Sounds good, doesn't it?"

Confused, he glanced at the other one.

"Greatest swordsman in the world; Roronoa Zoro, the last dragon."


End file.
